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| Syzygium nebulosum L.Weber, in Weber et Forster, 2025. |
Analysis of morphological variation for plants previously confused with Syzygium crebrinerve (C.T.White) L.A.S.Johnson due to similar bark and leaf appearance, or S. oleosum (F.Muell.) B.Hyland due to similar fruit appearance, has revealed that a novel species is present in the high elevation (800–1200m) cloud rainforests of the Tweed Range and Springbrook, Lamington plateaux. These plateaux form the northern and western erosional remnants of the ~ 20 million-year-old Wollumbin (Mt Warning) – Tweed volcano. The new species S. nebulosum L.Weber is described with notes on morphology, distribution, habitat, dispersal ecology and conservation status. The biogeographic context and potential threats and conservation status for this species are discussed.
Key Words: Myrtaceae; Syzygium; Syzygium crebrinerve; Syzygium johnsonii; Syzygium nebulosum;
Syzygium oleosum; flora of New South Wales; flora of Queensland; new species; conservation status;
Wollumbin (Mt Warning) – Tweed Volcanic Caldera; biogeography; myrtle rust; refugia
Syzygium nebulosum L.Weber sp. nov.
Similar to S. crebrinerve (C.T.White) L.A.S.Johnson but differing in having smooth to flaky, pinkish bark, often with numerous coppice shoots at the base of the trunk (vs scaly fissured, fawn to pale pink bark without coppice shoots at the base of the trunk in S. crebrinerve); fresh mature leaves with 14–24 pairs of dark green looping secondary lateral veins (vs fresh mature leaves with 22–35 pairs that are usually the same colour as the lamina and not prominently visible on S. crebrinerve); oil glands are of two types: larger golden glands interspersed with smaller translucent glands (vs one type of translucent gland in S. crebrinerve); new flush of leaves often has a distinctive golden green colour (vs pink to wine red and maturing orange in S. crebrinerve); twigs are covered in smooth peeling maroon to orange bark just below the leaves (vs pinkish non peeling bark in S. crebrinerve); inflorescences are borne in the leaf axils (vs terminal and multi branched in S. crebrinerve); flowers with four creamygolden petals (vs four white or pinkish ...
Suggested Vernacular Name: Caldera Satinash
Etymology: The specific epithet is derived from the Latin adjective nebulosus – subject to cloud and mist or hazy, foggy or obscure. Named for the cloud rainforest environment on the Wollumbin (Mt Warning) – Tweed caldera above 800 m from which the species is restricted to and that is frequently shrouded in mist for up to 70% of the year, and the obscure hazy identity of the species not uncovered for nearly half a century after its first collection.
Lui C. Weber and Paul I. Forster. 2025. Syzygium nebulosum L.Weber, a novel and narrowly endemic species from the high-elevation cloud rainforests of the Wollumbin (Mt Warning) – Tweed volcanic caldera on the New South Wales – Queensland border, Australia. Austrobaileya. 15: 1−27.
https://www.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0037/573796/weber-forster-syzygium-nebulosum-page-7.pdf
