Citronella moorei

Citronella moorei
	giant Citronella moorei, Allyn River, Barrington Tops, Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Aquifoliales
Family:	Cardiopteridaceae
Genus:	Citronella
Species:	C. moorei
Binomial name
	Citronella moorei; F. Muell. ex Benth. & R. A. Howard
Synonyms
	Villaresia moorei F. Muell.; Chariessa moorei, Engl.;

Citronella moorei is a rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. Common names for this species include Churnwood, Citronella, Soapy Box, Silky Beech and Corduroy.

Habitat

This species occurs in moist sheltered valleys and slopes in tropical, sub tropical and warm temperate rainforests. It is found from the Clyde River, New South Wales to Mossman, Queensland in the tropics.

Description

Citronella moorei is a large irregularly shaped tree attaining a height of 50 metres and a diameter of 2 metres. The crown is dark green, large and dense. Easily identified in the rainforest by the extraordinary twisting and crooked trunk.

Bark, trunk & leaves

The bark is light grey or fawn, fissured and corky. The outer surface of live bark is cream with numerous vertical orange brown lines. The trunk is prominently and irregularly channelled or fluted. The trunk is rarely round except in very small trees. Often the trunk is twisting, leaning and crooked.

Branchlets moderately slender, green and smooth. Young shoots finely downy. Leaves are alternate, simple, margins entire, elliptic or broadly lanceolate in outline, 5 to 10 cm long, 4 to 6 cm broad. Leaves are not wavy edged, and drawn out to a blunt point at the tip.

Venation is prominent on both surfaces. Midrib and four to six lateral veins raised, conspicuous and paler beneath. Small pits situated in the axils of the mid and lateral veins. Lateral veins extending to the leaf margin.

Flowers

Flowering period May to September. Creamy green in narrow panicles arising from the forks of the leaves or from the branchlets opposite or between the leaves. Either male or female trees. Panicles 2 to 16 cm long with short branches 4 to 6 cm long, each bearing a cluster of three to seven stalkless flowers, about 4 mm long. Calyx cup shaped or bell shaped, hairy, less than 2 mm long, bearing five broadly triangular lobes at its rim. Petals five, narrow with inflexed tips, hairless, 3 mm long. Stamens five, slender as long as the petals with yellow anthers, less than 1 mm long. Ovary egg shaped, hairy, tapering at its tip into a hairless style about 2 mm long, with a lobed stigma.

Fruit & germination

The fruit is a black, oval or globular drupe, about 2 cm long. The outer part succulent the inner part hard, enclosing the hard part of the fruit projecting into the centre of the seed cavity, and forming a partial dissepiment (That is a partition formed within ovaries and fruits by the coherence of the sides of the constituent carpels). Fruit ripe December to June. Eaten by Green Catbird, Topknot Pigeon and Wompoo Fruit Dove.

Removal of the fleshy aril is advised. Germination of sown fresh seed is slow, beginning after about six months and being complete after 8 to 14 months yielding a 100% success rate.

Timber & Uses

Pale grey timber, close grained with conspicuous rays. Suitable for brush stocks and small mouldings. Sapwood is susceptible to borers. Weight 650 to 800 kilograms per cubic metre.