Meryta latifolia
Meryta latifolia, commonly known as broad-leaved meryta or shade tree, is an evergreen tree endemic to Norfolk Island, Australia, where it occurs in subtropical moist forest conditions. Description Meryta latifolia grows as a single-trunked tree reaching tall. It may have a few branches near the top. Its wood is brittle. The wide leaves grow to in length by across. They are oblanceolate in shape, having a narrowed base and broad, rounded apex. The female inflorescence grows in a panicle at the end of the branch and is long, and densely clustered. The fruit is round, 5 to 6 mm long, bluntly 5 or 6-ribbed. Convicts apparently used the large leaves to wrap up dough to bake in ashes. Taxonomy Stephan Endlicher described the species as Botryodendrum latifolium in 1792. German botanist Berthold Carl Seemann gave the species its current name in 1862. Distribution and status Meryta latifolia occurs only on Norfolk Island, and is considered critically endangered because it is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. The total number of mature individual plants is less than 150, the effective reproductive population limited by the number of surviving female plants, which number approximately 20. It occurs on ten sites on