Eidothea

For other uses, see Eidothea (disambiguation).

Eidothea
Eidothea hardeniana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Subfamily: Proteoideae
Genus: Eidothea
A.W.Douglas & B.Hyland[1][2][3]
Type species
Eidothea zoexylocarya
A.W.Douglas & B.Hyland
Species

See text

Eidothea is a genus of two species of rainforest trees in New South Wales and Queensland, in eastern Australia, constituting part of the plant family Proteaceae.[1][2][4] The plant family Proteaceae was named after the shape-shifting god Proteus of Greek mythology. The genus name Eidothea refers to one of the three daughters of Proteus.[5]

In 1883 German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller named fossil seeds Xylocaryon lockii from Miocene age sediments excavated in old gold mining sites in Victoria; they match those of Eidothea and are thought to represent the modern plant.[6][7]

Eidothea is known from geographic areas separated by more than 1,000 km (620 mi), the mountains of the Wet Tropics of north-eastern Queensland, the Nightcap Range area of north-eastern New South Wales and as the fossils from southern Victoria, much further to the south,[2][8] underlining the fact that Australia's rainforests are tiny remnants of ancient rainforests that millions of years ago covered large parts of Australia. This makes them a particularly precious part of Australia's natural heritage.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Douglas-Hyland-1995-Fl-Australia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Weston-Kooyman-2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference APNI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Douglas-Hyland-1995-Fl-Australia-subfam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference etymology was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mueller-1883-fossils was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Greenwood-etal.-2000-fossils was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Weston-Kooyman-2002-ASGAP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).