Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Austrobuxus megacarpus P.I.Forst.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Female flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and fruit. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, Epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

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.

Common name

Shiny Southern Box

Stem

Often a gnarled poorly formed tree.

Leaves

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.

Flowers

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

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

Seedlings

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

Distribution and Ecology

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.

Synonyms
Austrobuxus nitidus Miq., Florae Indiae Batavae, Suppl. 1, Prodromus Florae Sumatranae : 444(1861), Type: Sumatra occid. in littore prope Siboga (T.).
RFK Code
477
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