Eupomatia laurina, commonly named bolwarra, native guava or copper laurel, is a species of plant in the primitive flowering-plant family Eupomatiaceaeendemic to Australia and New Guinea.
Description
It grows to between 3 and 5 m (10 and 16 ft) tall, but larger specimens may attain a height of 15 m (50 ft) and a trunk diameter of 30 cm (12 in).[4] It has glossy, ovate to elliptic leaves, from 5 to 20 cm (2 to 8 in) long. The branches bear globose to urn-shaped fruit which are green in colour and measure 15โ20 mm (0.6โ0.8 in) in diameter. They yellow when ripe and contain pale-coloured, edible, jelly-like flesh inside, with many non-edible seeds (similar appearance to guava contents).[4][5][6]
Taxonomy
This species was first described by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown, based on material collected by himself and other crew members between 1801 and 1803, during the circumnavigation of Australia with Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator. His work was published as appendix III of volume 2 of Flinders' book A Voyage to Terra Australis.[7]
Brown created the new genus Eupomatia to accommodate this plant, and placed it in the family Annonaceae, but in 1845 the French botanist Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny transferred it to the new family Eupomatiaceae.[7][8]
In cultivation E. laurina is frost sensitive and prefers a protected, semi-shaded site. It can be propagated from seed or cuttings. Cutting propagated trees produce fruit after two years. Seedlings take four to six years to fruit. Cuttings are not advised as a method of regeneration.[4] Germination from fresh seed commences after around three weeks and completes after five weeks, with a high rate of germination.
^ abBrown, Robert (1814). "General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the botany of Terra Australis". A Voyage to Terra Australis. By Flinders, Matthew. Vol. 2, appendix III. London: G. & W. Nicol. pp. 597โ598. Retrieved 10 August 2024.