From huddling on the east side of Bartle Frere to a bench in our nursery

Well, while I'm on a roll. This is another plant from our expeditions to the wet tropics of Queensland, and nowadays, included in the family Cunoniaceae (read all about that family in my last post).

This is Eucryphia wilkiei, or Wilkiei's Leatherwood. The better known Eucryphia is the one from Tasmania, Eucryphia lucida, the source of leatherwood honey. The Eastern Leatherwood, Eucryphia moorei, pops into the Howe Range in far eastern Victoria, at the southern end of its more extensive distribution in south-eastern New South Wales. There are seven species of Eucryphia, two in South America, the rest in Australia.

But back to Queensland, via these potted specimens in our nursery at Cranbourne Gardens. Wilkiei's Leatherwood is found in narrow altitudinal range of 1200 to 1400 metres above sea level, again on Mount Bartle Frere and in this case, no where else. This is the only tropical species of Eucryphia.

The species was first found and collected for science by Jack Wilkiei, an orchid enthusiast, in 1971. He found it among granite boulders on the eastern side of the summit, the only know natural location. 

While safely contained within a national park this species will be particularly vulnerable to any further change in the climate. The 'narrow range endemic', as species with such restricted distributions are called, doesn't have many places to go should it's existing habitat become too dry or too warm.

Those stipules I mentioned last time, characteristic of the family Cunoniaceae, are again deciduous. That curved red appendage to the left of this next picture, between where the leaves are attached, is I believe a stipule. I'll take a closer look next time I'm in the nursery... 

The flowers are much larger than those of last week's Spiraeanthemum davidsonii, but similar in colour and delicacy. Not a bit terminal cluster but single flowers off the side of the stem.

The less divided leaves with tucked-under edges (recurved) distinguish the Wilkiei Leatherwood from our single Victorian Leatherwood. 

While not common in cultivation, you can see it in the Gondwana section of the Australian National Botanic Garden in Canberra. And, I notice, it is listed in the Royal Horticultural Society's plant finder for plants to grow in the UK. Inside a rather warm and protected glasshouse I would suggest.