Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Guioa semiglauca

Flower cluster and back of leaf. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Flowering stem. Photographer Don Wood, Boyne State Forest north of Batemans Bay

Open seed cases with seeds. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Trunk. Australian Plant Image Index, Murray Fagg, Mullumbimby Heritage Grden, Mullumbimby

Common name

Guioa

Family

Sapindaceae

Where found

Rainforest, common in regrowth. Stream banks. Coast and ranges north from Batemans Bay.

Notes

Tree to 18 m high. Arils on the seeds fleshy. Larger trunks flanged or channelled at the base. Bark smooth, grey to dark grey, often blotchy. New growth red. Young stems hairy with appressed fawnish simple hairs, soon becoming hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 6–18 cm long, compound, with  2–6 leaflets each 3–10 cm long, 10–40 mm wide, tips blunt or mucronate or rarely pointed, upper surface dull, dark green and hairless; lower surface glaucous, greyish green, gland-dotted and hairy with fine hairs. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers pale green or cream to white, 3-5 mm in diameter, with 5 petals. Flowers in many-flowered branched clusters 3–15 cm long. Seed cases greenish yellow to reddish, unlobed or with 2 or 3 spreading lobes, 6–10 mm long, 8–15 mm wide. Arils yellow to orange, almost completely covering the seeds.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Guioa~semiglauca  (accessed 19 January, 2021)