Buckinghamia celsissima
English: Ivory curl flower; Ivory curl; Spotted silky oak; Buckinghamia silky oak.
Clades: Proteaceae.
Genus: 2 species.
Region: northeastern Queensland, Australia.
Habitat: dry rainforest; altitudes of 200 to 1000 m; often with Agathis robusta; wet tropics rainforests; intolerant of frost; full sun or part shade; 200 to 1000 m altitude.
Use: ornamental in gardens and parks; Hardy and spectacular trees, they make ideal screens or windbreaks in a garden.
Botany
Leaves: glossy dark green above, whitish below; quite variable; more lobes when juvenile leaves, simple and entire when adult; 8 to 16 cm long, 3 to 7 cm wide; lobed or entire; new growth flushed pink.
Inflorescence: terminal, showy spikes, drooping racemes; 20 cm long.
Flowers: spectacular; long showy sprays of sweetly fragrant, creamy-white flowers; blooming in summer and autumn; four ovules per carpel; antero-posterior orientation of the perianth.
Pollination: by birds and bees.
Fruit: woody follicles, ± 2 cm long.
Chromosomes: 11 pairs.