Alchornea thozetiana (Baill.) Baill. ex Benth.

Euphorbiaceae

Bentham, G. (1873) Flora Australiensis 6: 137.

Thozet's holly

A small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh, often flowering and fruiting as a shrub.

About 2-4 flat glands on the underside of the leaf blade near its junction with the petiole. Leaf blades about 9-20 x 2.5-6.5 cm. Small oil dots visible with a lens. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Domatia are inconspicuous tufts of hair.

Male flowers: Flowers in spikes, fascicles or panicles, branches about 5-10 cm long. Female flowers: Flowers about 7 mm diam., in spikes or racemes about 5-10 cm long. Stigmas +/- subulate, about 3 mm long.

Capsules pubescent +/- globular, 3-lobed, about 7-8 x 9-10 mm. Seeds about 6 x 3.5-4 mm.

Cotyledons almost orbicular, about 17-19 mm diam., the petiole clothed in short pale hairs. First pair of leaves with toothed margins, stipules triangular, about 1 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves with recurved or hooked teeth, each with a pale gland at the apex; stipules triangular at the base but drawn out to a long fine point at the apex, hairy. Seed germination time 31 to 38 days.

Probably endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards to south-eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range in NEQ from near sea level to 500 m. Grows in monsoon forest and the drier types of rain forest.

Alchornea thozetiana Benth. var. thozetiana, Flora Australiensis 6: 137(1873). Coelebogyne thozetiana Pax & K.Hoffm., Engler's Das Pflanzenreich Heft 63 : 257(1914). Cladodes thozetiana Baill., Adansonia 6: 321(1866), Type: Thozet, near Rockhampton (herb. F. Muell.!).