Brachychiton chillagoensis Guymer

Guymer, G.P. (1988) Australian Systematic Botany 1(3): 296. Type: 5.3 km SE of Chillagoe, Cook District, Queensland, 13 Jan. 1977, G.P. Guymer 910 (holotypus BRI; isotypus NE).

Kurrajong

Very fine grain in the wood and a corresponding pattern in the inner blaze. Deciduous; leafless from May to October.

Large pores visible in the twig pith. Petiole usually shorter than the leaf blade. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Leaf blades about 9-17 x 9-19 cm, usually 4-6-lobed. Leaf blade lower surface densely clothed in stellate hairs, less so on the upper surface. Petioles densely clothed in stellate hairs.

Perianth pink but green towards the base. Perianth induplicate-valvate in the bud, induplicate margins more than 2 mm wide. Floral nectaries distinct, about 10-14. Perianth about 25-40 mm long, clothed in brown stellate hairs outside and white stellate hairs on the inner surface. Flowers not viscid.

Fruits about 5.5-12 x 3-4.5 cm, stellate hairy on both the inner and outer surfaces. Seeds about 9-11 x 5.5-7 mm, enveloped in a yellow aril. Testa hard.

Cotyledons enclosed in the seedcoat. Taproot swollen, +/- carrot-like (Daucus carota). One or two cataphylls produced before the first pair of true leaves. First true leaves cordate, clothed mainly in simple hairs with only scattered stellate hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade palmate or cordate, apex broadly acute, base cordate, both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade and petiole hairy, with at least some hairs stellate. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Stipules about 2 mm long. Taproot carrot-like (Daucus carota), very swollen. Seed germination time 13 to 15 days.

Occurs in NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from 250-850 m. Grows in monsoon forest and vine thickets often in rather rocky situations.