Syzygium cryptophlebium is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae endemic to eastern Queensland, Australia. It is a rainforest tree, first described in 1875. It has a conservation status of least concern.
Description Syzygium cryptophlebium is a tree capable of growing up to tall, with a trunk up to diameter, although it is usually much smaller. The petioles (leaf stems) average about long, the leaves about long and wide. They are lanceolate to linear in shape and have lateral veins that are sometimes difficult to discern.
Inflorescences grow from the tips of the branches or from the . The flowers are cream or white and have four or five petals about diameter. Stamens are numerous; the ovary has two locules, or chambers, with up to 25 ovules each.
The fruit is a purple berry up to wide and long, with persistent calyx lobes at the apex. It contains a single seed.
Distribution It occurs from about Lockhart River to the Mackay region, with the bulk of occurrences between Cooktown and Townsville. It inhabits rainforest at altitudes from sea level up to .
Taxonomy This plant was first described as Eugenia cryptophlebia in 1875 by Ferdinand von Mueller, based on material collected by John Dallachy at Rockingham Bay. In 1985, Bernard Hyland published a 164-page review of the genus Syzygium in Australia, making many changes to existing names in the process. Two of those changes were to transfer Eugenia wilsonii to Syzygium wilsonii, and to reduce Eugenia cryptophlebia to subspecies status under S. wilsonii as Syzygium wilsonii subsp. cryptophlebium. In 2005, Lyndley Craven and Edward Sturt Biffin reinstated it to species status under the current combination, arguing that although "the two taxa are clearly related, the differences are such that separate recognition at species rank is warranted".
Conservation This species is listed as least concern in the Queensland Government's WildNet database. , it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Ecology Fruits of the plum satinash are eaten by Macleay's and Lewin's honeyeaters.
Gallery
References
External links
Map of recorded sightings of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium Observations of this species on iNaturalist