Polyalthia fruticosa is a plant in the custard apple family Annonaceae found only in the northern half of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, from the Torres Strait to the McIlwraith Range. It is a shrub up to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall, producing white flowers and red fruit. It was first described in 2007 as Haplostichanthus fruticosus by the Australian botanist Lawrence W. Jessup, and transferred to the genus Polyalthia in 2018 in a broad taxonomic review of the genus by Xue et al.[3][4][5]
| Polyalthia fruticosa | |
|---|---|
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| Flowers | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Magnoliales |
| Family: | Annonaceae |
| Genus: | Polyalthia |
| Species: | P. fruticosa
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| Binomial name | |
| Polyalthia fruticosa | |
| Synonyms[3] | |
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It is one of the host plants for larvae of the green-spotted triangle butterfly (Graphium agamemnon).[4]
Conservation
editThis species is listed by the Queensland Government's Department of Environment, Science and Innovation as least concern.[1] As of October 2024[update], it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
References
edit- ^ a b "Species profile—Polyalthia fruticosa". Queensland Department of Environment and Science. Queensland Government. 2024. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- ^ "Polyalthia fruticosa". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI). Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- ^ a b c "Polyalthia fruticosa (Jessup) B.Xue & R.M.K.Saunders". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2024. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- ^ a b F.A.Zich; B.P.M.Hyland; T.Whiffen; R.A.Kerrigan (2020). "Polyalthia fruticosa". Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants Edition 8 (RFK8). Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR), Australian Government. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- ^ Xue, Bine; Su, Yvonne C.F.; Thomas, Daniel C.; Saunders, Richard M.K. (2018). "Pruning the polyphyletic genus Polyalthia (Annonaceae) and resurrecting the genus Monoon". Taxon. 61 (5): 1034. doi:10.1002/tax.615009.
External links
edit
- View a map of herbarium collections of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium
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