Eupomatia is a genus of three flowering shrub species of the Australian continent, constituting the only genus in the ancient family Eupomatiaceae. The Eupomatiaceae have been recognised by most taxonomists and classified in the plant order Magnoliales. The three species of shrubs or small trees grow naturally in the rainforests and humid eucalypt forests of eastern Australia and New Guinea. The type species Eupomatia laurina was described in 1814 by Robert Brown. Description Trees or subshrubs rhizomatous with soft starchy basal tubers, indumentum absent or present on the branches Leaves distichous, simple, entire, penninerved, brochidodromous, petiolate, without stipules with secretory, aromatic idioblasts, stomata paracytic or actinocytic, only on the undersides of leaves Stems with nodes (5-)7(-11)-lacunar, radii uni- or multicellular, medulla not septate Plants hermaphrodites Flowers perfect, cream or red and yellow, 30–40 mm in diameter, actinomorphic, spiral, epigynous, solitary, axillary or terminal, sometimes in fascicles of 2-3, with 1-2 fused bracts forming a calyptra Receptacle urceolate (shaped like an urn). Sepals and petals absent; stamens 20-100, tetrasporangiate, petaloids, gynostemium short, wide, anthers basifixed, introrse, longitudinally dehiscent, connectivum elongated; staminodes intrastaminal 40-80, petaloid, with glands in the blade and at the edge; stamens and staminodes basally fused forming a deciduous synandrium; carpels 13-70, syncarpous, fused for more than half of their length, forming a flattened apical structure; styles absent, stigmas flat, papillose; ovules 2-11 per carpel, anatropous, apotropous, bitegmic, crassinucellate; placentation sublaminar, in two rows along the ventral side of the carpel. Fruit compound in fleshy berry Seeds with endosperm fleshy to oily, ruminate, embryo straight, small, with two cotyledons Pollen subglobose, grooved; exine atectate, psilate Chromosomal number: n = 10, 2n = 20. Ecology Protogynous and autocompatible flowers, with a reduction in selfing through herkogamy, diurnal synchronization of anthesis and the tendency of the same plant to not flower on two consecutive days. Anthesis lasts one or two days, at the height the flower behaves functionally as a female, showing its gynoecium and with open staminodes, while the stamens remain below the flower. The flower later behaves as a male with the intrastaminal staminodes folded inwards hiding the gynoecium and with erect stamens. The staminodes secrete an oily exudate and emit a fruity smell that attracts beetles, particularly of the genus Elleschodes (Curculionidae), that visit the flowers in both phases, in addition the synandria fall to the ground (cantharophily pollination). The fruit is sweet and aromatic and it is