Austrobuxus megacarpus P.I.Forst.

Forster, P.I. (1997) Austrobaileya 4: 622. Type: Qld, Cook District, State Forest Reserve 310, Bora Logging Area, 23 June 1982, B. Gray 2632; holo: QRS; iso: BRI.

Shiny Southern Box

Often a gnarled poorly formed tree.

Leaf blades about 2.5-11 x 1-3.5 cm. Lateral veins forming loops well inside the blade margin. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Terminal buds almost hidden by the closely appressed petioles of the terminal pair of leaves. Old leaves turn orange-red prior to falling.

Male flowers: Flowers about 5 mm diam. Disk in the male flowers composed of numerous +/- separate glands. Female flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam., style very short or absent, stigma terminal.

Fruit about 18-23 mm long. Aril fimbriate, not completely enclosing the seed.

Cotyledons elliptic. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves narrowly elliptic, apex acuminate. Seed germination time 55 to 174 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in NEQ, restricted to the area between Black Mountain-Mt Spurgeon, Pinnacle Rock and the Atherton Tableland. Altitudinal range from 600-1300 m. Grows in upland and mountain rain forest.