Species profile—Neoroepera buxifolia
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Picrodendraceae → Neoroepera buxifolia
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Picrodendraceae
- Scientific name
- Neoroepera buxifolia Muell.Arg. & F.Muell.
- WildNet taxon ID
- 11318
- Alternate name(s)
- serpentinite bush
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Vulnerable
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Description
- Neoroepera buxifolia is a monoecious shrub or small tree growing to 6 m high. The leaves are elliptic, 1 to 4 cm long, 0.6 to 2 cm wide and evenly spaced along the stems. The flowers are clustered along a short axis and subtended by numerous microscopic, semi-circular hairy bracts. The male flowers are 4.5 to 8 mm long, have 4 to 7 stamens, although usually 6, and ciliate margins on the perianth lobes. The female flowers are solitary, and apical with several male flowers below, 1 to 2 mm in diameter and styles with three distal, flattened, stigmatic portions. The fruit are obloid to obovoid, 5 to 8 mm long, at first conspicuously crowned with 3 long-persisting styles. The seed are usually ellipsoid becoming dorsiventrally flattened with maturity and black when ripe (Henderson, 1992).
- Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Neoroepera buxifolia is known from areas between Marlborough and Yaamba, and between Rockhampton and Yeppoon, in Queensland. The species occurs within Lake Learmouth State Forest (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -22.7597222, 149.8260865
-23.0834229, 150.2760823 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Neoroepera buxifolia is recorded 60 to 100 m asl. It occurs in gallery or riparian forest, often associated with Melaleuca nervosa, Casuarina cunninghamiana and Livistona decipiens. It also occurs in gallery rainforest with Amorphospermum antilogum and Melaleuca leucadendra. M. buxifolia tolerates periodic inundation, growing on river banks and dry creek beds (Pollock, 1997; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Reproduction
- Neoroepera buxifolia is known to flower from May to October, and fruits are produced in October (Queensland Herbarium, 2012). Plants set large quantities of seed and are also able to reproduce vegetatively in flooded channels (Batianoff, 1995).
- Threatening processes
- The main identified threats to Neoroepera buxifolia are vegetation clearing, weeds, mining, grazing pressure and inappropriately managed timber harvesting (Pollock, 1997; DSEWPC, 2012)
- Status notes
- Neoroepera buxifolia is listed as Vulnerable under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 and Vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
- Management recommendations
- Regional and local priority actions to support the recovery of Neoroepera buxifolia are outlined by DSEWPC (2012). A summary of these include: avoid habitat loss, disturbance and modification (e.g. monitor known populations to identify key threats, monitor the progress of recovery, including the effectiveness of management actions; identify populations of high conservation priority); control invasive weeds (identify and remove weeds in the local area; manage sites to prevent introduction of invasive weeds); minimise trampling, browsing or grazing (manage known sites to ensure appropriate grazing regimes occur, manage total grazing pressure); increase conservation information (raise awareness of Neoroepera buxifolia in the local community); and enable recovery of additional sites and/or populations (e.g. undertake appropriate seed collection and storage).
Additional management for the protection of Neoroepera buxifolia includes: the establishment of a protective buffer (0.3 ha) that excludes clearing with all Neoroepera buxifolia at least 30m inside the buffer (Pollock, 1997). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Port Curtis.
- References
- Batianoff, G.N. (1995). Summary of Rare and Endemic Plants of Serpentinite Outcrops of Queensland. Queensland Herbarium, DERM.
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2012). Neoroepera buxifolia in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Accessed 19/03/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat.
Henderson, R.J.F. (1992). Studies in Euphorbiaceae A.L.Juss., sens. lat. 2. A Revision of Neoroepera Muell. Arg. and F. Muell. (Oldfieldioideae Kohler and Webster, Caletieae Muell. Arg.). Austrobaileya 3 (4): 622-624.
Pollock, A. (1997). Neoroepera buxifolia Species Management Profile. Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 20/03/2012. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (19/03/2012)
Other resources
- Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT)
- The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
- Atlas of Living Australia
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=11318.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
