Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Beilschmiedia brunnea B.Hyland


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Habit, flower, stamens & glands, staminode, fruit, seedling. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Flower, bird's-eye view, tepals, anthers, glands & ovary. © CSIRO
Flower, oblique view, tepals pubescent, anthers, glands & ovary. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Hyland, B.P.M. (1989) Australian Systematic Botany 2: 149. Type: B. Hyland 12473, State Forest Reserve 310, Windin Logging Area 24.i.1983 (QRS, holotypus).

Common name

Brown Walnut; Walnut, Brown

Stem

A thin cream or pale brown layer generally visible beneath the subrhytidome layer before the first section of the outer blaze. Lenticels often numerous and conspicuous and tending to be in longitudinal lines.

Leaves

Twigs terete or angular, clothed in straight, pale brown, appressed hairs when young but glabrous when older. Older twigs marked by numerous pale brown lenticels. Leaf blades about 7-12.5 x 2.5-7 cm, slightly glaucous on the underside, clothed in short, straight, white or pale brown, appressed hairs. Midrib raised or flush with the upper surface. Petioles flat or channelled on the upper surface. Oil dots visible with a lens.

Flowers

Tepals about 2.4-3.2 mm long. Stamens nine. Staminodes three, each differentiated into a distinct head and filament. Ovary hairy, sessile or very shortly stalked.

Fruit

Fruits about 20-22 x 17 mm. Endocarp 0.7-0.9 mm thick. Cotyledons cream or yellowish.

Seedlings

At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade upper surface with a few prostrate hairs, undersurface slightly glaucous; oil dots numerous, small, visible only with a lens; petioles hairy. Seed germination time 32 to 37 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the Atherton Tableland and surrounding areas. Altitudinal range from 500-1100 m. Grows in well developed upland and mountain rain forest.

Natural History & Notes

This species produces millable logs, a useful general purpose timber, the sawn timber is sold as Brown Walnut although this is not the Standard Trade Name. Wood specific gravity 0.60-0.70 Hyland (1989).

RFK Code
73
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