Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Alectryon tomentosus (F.Muell.) Radlk.


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Dehisced fruit and arillous seed. © CSIRO
Fruit, dehisced fruit and arillous seed. CC-BY: B. Gray
Leaves and fruit. CC-BY: B. Gray
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Radlkofer, L.A.T. (1879) Actes du Congres Internationale de Botanistes .. Amsterdam for 1877 : 117.

Common name

Woolly Rambutan; Bed-jacket; Hairy Alectryon; Hairy Bird's Eye; Red Jacket

Stem

A small tree seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh. Blaze layering usually very conspicuous.

Leaves

Young twigs longitudinally grooved and clothed in yellow +/- erect tortuous hairs. Leaflet blades about 4-14.5 x 2-6.5 cm. Leaflet stalks quite short.

Flowers

Calyx (perianth) 5-lobed, about 1.5 mm long, villous. Petals absent. Anthers red. Disk red.

Fruit

Capsules about 8-22 mm diam, sessile, with 1-3 knob-like lobes, densely woolly on the outer surface. Seeds black. Aril cupular, but much larger than and almost obscuring the seed, granular and red.

Seedlings

Cotyledons +/- spathulate, about 10-12 mm long. First pair of leaves trifoliolate, the leaflets lobed or coarsely toothed. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blades coarsely toothed, terminal bud clothed in yellowish, erect, tortuous hairs. Seed germination time 24 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia, occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as coastal central New South Wales. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 950 m. Grows in monsoon forest and drier, more seasonal rain forest.

Synonyms
Nephelium tomentosum F.Muell., Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 2: 64(1857), Type: On the Brisbane River. Hill & Mueller.
RFK Code
865
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