Vic Stockwell's puzzle facts for kids

Stockwellia is a genus of a single described species of large Australian trees, constituting part of the plant family Myrtaceae and included in the eucalypts group. The species Stockwellia quadrifida sometimes has the common names of stockwellia or Vic Stockwell's puzzle.

Botanists' descriptions record that these large trees, up to 40 m (130 ft) tall, are endemic to one region of the luxuriant Wet Tropics rainforests of north-eastern Queensland, and within an altitude range of about 500–750 m (1,600–2,500 ft).

They were not known to European Australian science until 1971, when the first steps were made in aerial photography forest interpretation, which led to the discovery by north Queensland forest ranger Victor Stockwell (1918–1999) of the restricted area of these large trees.

Plant geneticists have found the evolutionarily closest relatives in the two New Guinea species of the genus Eucalyptopsis, the only two species known in that genus, and in the species Allosyncarpia ternata, the only known species in its genus, endemic to a restricted area of the Arnhem Land plateau, Northern Territory, Australia.

Stockwellia trees' geographically isolated distribution has obtained the conservation status "near threatened", officially listed in the regulation current as of 27 September  2013 (2013 -09-27)^[update], of the Queensland government legislation, the Nature Conservation Act 1992.

The seeds are eaten by sulphur-crested cockatoos.

See also

In Spanish: Stockwellia para niños