Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Cryptocarya hypospodia
Common name
Northern Laurel, Rib-fruited Pepperberry
Family
Lauraceae
Where found
Planted, sometimes a garden escape. Coast, ranges, and tablelands, north from Jervis Bay. Occasionally elsewhere.
Occurs naturally in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Notes
Introduced tree to 30 m high. Fruit fleshy. Base of the trunk sometimes buttressed. Bark grey to brownish, finely fissured longitudinally, sometimes flaky. Young stems fluted, or cylindrical, with lenticels, densely hairy with brownish or rusty hairs, becoming hairless. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 4–24.5 cm long, 25–135 mm wide, upper surface glossy, lower surface green or slightly glaucous, hairy when young, becoming almost hairless. Flowers unpleasantly perfumed, brownish or cream to greenish, tubular, the tube 1–1.8 mm long, 1.3–1.5 mm wide, with 6 'petals', each 1.4–1.9 mm long. Flower clusters usually longer than the leaves. Fruit black, globular to oval or pear shaped, 12-18 mm long, ribbed when dry.
Description based on Flora of Australian Online: https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Cryptocarya%20hypospodia (accessed 10 February 2021)
and on Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/cryptocarya_hypospodia.htm (accessed 10 February 2021)
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