Monotypic genus of plants
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Neorites is a monotypic genus of plants in the family Proteaceae. The sole species Neorites kevedianus, commonly called fishtail oak or fishtail silky oak, is a tall tree endemic to the wet tropics rainforests of north eastern Queensland, Australia.
Taxonomy and naming.
Queensland botanist Lindsay Smith named the species in 1969, based on a specimen collected near Kuranda in 1955 by Queensland forestry officers Kevin J. White and H. Edgar Volck. Smith coined the species name from the first names of the finders.
Peter H. Weston and Nigel Barker refined the classification of the Proteaceae in 2006, incorporating molecular data. Here, "Neorites" emerged as closely related to the genera "Orites" and "Roupala". They thus placed the three genera in the subtribe "Roupalinae", conceding that the next closest relatives of this group is unclear. This group lies within the subfamily Grevilleoideae. Clock dating with molecular and fossil data indicated ancestors of "Neorites" and the South American genus "Roupala" may have diverged in the mid-Oligocene around 30 million years ago, and that this lineage in turn separated from the ancestors of "Orites" in the late Eocene around 36 million years ago.
A compound-leaved fossil species has been recovered from the middle Eocene Golden Grove site in Adelaide that closely resembles "Neorites kevedianus". Although abundant at this site, it has not been recovered elsewhere.
Description.
"Neorites kevedianus" is a tree reaching in height. The new growth is covered in brownish fur.
Distribution and habitat.
"Neorites kevedianus" is native to north Queensland, where it is found in rainforest on volcanic soils at altitudes from above sea level.
References.
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