Endospermum myrmecophilum, commonly known as moon tree or toywood, is a species of plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is native to New Guinea and to the Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia. It was first described in 1947 by Lindsay Stuart Smith and it has a conservation status of least concern.
Description Endospermum myrmecophilum is a tree that usually grows to about tall with a trunk up to diameter. The bark is pale with longitudinal fissures, and the tree may have buttresses up to tall. The branches are hollow and inhabited by ants. Stipules are present, measuring up to long. The leaves are attached to the branches by a petiole (leaf stalk) up to long, and the leaf blades are ovate to orbicular and about wide and long. There are two conspicuous glands on the underside of the leaf blade next to the junction with the petiole. The leaves are glossy green above and covered with minute hairs underneath.
The inflorescence consists of a number of short spikes forming a panicle. This species is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. Flowers of both sexes are small, about diameter and hairy. Male flowers usually have five stamens; female flowers have a single locule or chamber within the ovary. The fruit is a somewhat globose green drupe about long and wide containing one seed.
Taxonomy This species was first described in 1946 by Australian botanist Lindsay Stuart Smith, in a paper that dealt with the genus Endospermum in New Guinea. It was published in 1947 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland.
Etymology The generic name Endospermum is from the Greek endon 'within', combined with sperma 'seed'. It is a reference to the seeds being kept within the indehiscent fruit.
Distribution and habitat In Australia, this species is found in the northwest of the Northern Territory, and from Mission Beach to the top of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. In New Guinea it occurs mostly in the eastern parts of Papua New Guinea. It grows in and on the margins of rainforest, in swamps and alluvial forest, and has a preference for sandy loams. It is found from sea level up to in Australia and up to in New Guinea.
Conservation In 2019, this species was assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and found to be to be of least concern. The Queensland Government, under its Nature Conservation Act, has given it the same rating. The IUCN supports its assessment by saying that no threats to this species have been identified, and the species has an extent of occurrence of more than .
References
External links
Map of herbarium collections of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium Observations of this species on iNaturalist Images of this species on Flickriver.com