Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Celastrus subspicatus

Seed cases and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Bunya Mountains National Park SW of Kingaroy, Qld

Common name

  Large-leaved Staff Vine

Family

Celastraceae

Where found

Forest. Coast and ranges north of Nowra.

Notes

Twining or scrambling shrub. Seeds with a fleshy aril. Stems mostly red-brown or dark brown with numerous prominent pale lenticels, hairy when young, becoming hairless. Young branchlets with narrow scales to 4 mm long, (the margins more or less entire) at the base. Leaves alternating up the stems, 5–15 cm long, 20–70 mm wide,  margins entire or toothed, tips pointed. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers 3-5 mm in diameter, with 5 yellowish green petals, in branched clusters. Female flowers sometimes with stamens that do not produce pollen, smaller than male stamens. Flowering: November–December. Seed cases yellow to orange, the inner surface with few or no red spots, 5–10 mm long. Seeds with an orange to red or yellow-green aril completely surrounding the seed.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Celastrus~subsp.icatus 
(accessed 7 January, 2021)