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Corkwood's restoration history and shoot tests answer different questions about its use along fire-exposed rainforest borders.
In Potts and colleagues' 2022 study, Melicope elleryana appears among the 30 most planted Wet Tropics restoration species during 2012–2017. Figure 5b labels it #61 among 124 species in the study's shoot-flammability ranking and colours its bar red, the figure's high-flammability category. That is a finding about experimentally treated shoots, separate from the tree's popularity in restoration. Where rainforest fire incursion is a clear threat, the authors suggest low-flammability species along vulnerable planting borders.
The experiment used 70-centimetre sun-exposed terminal branches from healthy, reproductively mature plants in north-eastern Australia's Atherton Tablelands. Fresh shoots were weighed, laid horizontally on concrete and dried under shelter for 24 hours. On a modified five-burner barbecue, maintained at 100–130°C, shoots lay horizontally for two minutes of preheating before a blowtorch flame touched their distal end for 10 seconds. This was collected material exposed to a specified ignition treatment.
FLAMITS retains three measurements attributed to that study: estimated burnt biomass of 77%, burning duration of 31.8 seconds, and a value named maximum sample temperature of 717.5°C. Its branch records describe material dried before testing and fuel moisture of 10%. The primary methods explain what the measurements mean: burn time starts after ignition; two observers visually estimate biomass consumed using a grid and photographs, averaging differing estimates. An infrared thermometer approximately 50 centimetres away, at roughly 45 degrees, measures toward the flames, so the temperature is not a tissue-core reading.
The public paper and supplement do not print those exact species values or a Melicope replicate count; the numerical trail is through FLAMITS. The study's red category and the database's separate measurements therefore retain their own meanings. Restoration use alone does not demonstrate a low-flammability border function, while this shoot experiment supplies no Melicope-specific home setback or whole-tree fire-performance guarantee.
Form
tree
Region
Australia
Rated in
Global
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
Fire ecology context
Placement evidence
Evidence regions
Global
Maintenance
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Native range
Introduced / established
2 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed without a rating (3)Corroboration (3 rows from 1 source)
3 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Potts2022: Potts, E., Tng, D., Apgaua, D., Curran, T. J., Engert, J., & Laurance, S. G. (2022). Growth form and functional traits influence the shoot flammability of tropical rainforest species. Forest Ecology and Management, 522, 120485.
Shared row context: plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Potts2022-1; sampling ND.
