Endiandra insignis

Family

Lauraceae

Botanical Name

Endiandra insignis (F.M.Bailey) F.M.Bailey

Bailey, F.M. (1897) Queensland Agricultural Journal 1(1): 80. Type: ?.

Synonyms

Cryptocarya insignis F.M.Bailey, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Botany Bulletin 2: 15(1891), Type: Tropical scrubs in the Cairns district, and thence to the Bellenden-Ker Range.. Endiandra exostemonea F.Muell., The Victorian Naturalist 9: 42(1893), Type: At the Daintree-River; Theod. Pentzke.

Common name

Hairy Walnut; Walnut, Rusty; Rusty Walnut; Walnuit, Hairy

Stem

A thin cream or pale brown layer normally visible under the subrhytidome layer before the first section of the outer blaze.

Leaves

Twigs terete or fluted, clothed in tortuous, erect, brown or reddish brown hairs. Leaf blades about 10-22 x 2.5-13 cm, green on the underside, clothed in tortuous, erect, brown hairs. Midrib flush with or very slightly depressed on the upper surface. Petiole flat on the upper surface. Oil dots visible with a lens.

Flowers

Flowers pleasantly perfumed, scarcely opening at anthesis, the tepals remaining erect forming a sheath around the exserted anthers and styles. Tepals about 0.4-1.4 mm long. Staminal glands six, free from one another. Staminodes three, +/- lanceolate, not differentiated into a head and stalk.

Fruit

Fruits globular, sometimes wider than long, usually longitudinally ribbed, about 50-90 x 50-100 mm. Seed about 25-50 x 22-46 mm. Cotyledons cream to apricot.

Seedlings

First pair of leaves elliptic to slightly obovate, about 80-140 x 30-60 mm, green on the underside. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves hairy on the upper surface; oil dots small, visible only with a lens; terminal bud, petioles and stem densely clothed in long reddish or brown hairs; taproot thickened, +/- carrot-like (Daucus carota).

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, widespread in the area. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1000 m. Grows in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites but reaches its best development on soils derived from basalt.

Natural History

Fruit eaten by Cassowaries and Musky Rat-kangaroos. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

This species produces millable logs and the sawn timber is marketed as Hairy Walnut, a useful general purpose timber. Wood specific gravity 0.70-0.80. Hyland (1989).