Clerodendrum grayi Munir

Munir, A.A. (1989) Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 11: 166. Type: Queensland, Upper Barron River, Kennedy Highway, 17 25 S, 145 31 E, 12.Mar.1979, B. Gray 1327; holo: AD, iso: QRS.

Occasionally grows into a small tree but usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-5 m tall.

Young twigs and petioles clothed in erect, septate, brown or purplish hairs. Leaf blades about 10-18 x 4-8 cm. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in white septate hairs. Petiole grooved or channelled on the upper surface.

Pedicels pubescent, about 4-13 mm long. Calyx about 8-13 mm long, pubescent outside, glabrous and sparsely glandular inside, lobes about 5-9 mm long, acute at the apex, tube about 3-4 mm long. Corolla tube slender, about 25-40 mm long, glabrous but glandular on the outer surface, glabrous inside, lobes about 8-11 mm long. Stamens exserted, filaments about 30-35 mm long, anthers about 2 mm long. Ovary glabrous, globose, about 1-1.5 mm diam., style exserted, glabrous, about 60-75 mm long.

Fruits +/- green when fresh, globular-obovoid, glabrous, about 7-10 x 6-10 mm. Calyx red, persistent at the base, funnel-shaped and spreading, about 20-25 mm diam.

First pair of leaves variable, ovate to elliptic, both the upper and lower surfaces clothed in short hairs, margins irregularly toothed or lobed with 2-5 teeth on each side. Stem densely clothed in short hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, apex acuminate or apiculate, base cuneate. Margin +/- dentate with 6-8 teeth on each side, mainly in the middle section. Lateral veins about 7 on each side of the midrib. Stem and leaf blade undersurface usually purple. Seed germination time 110 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to a few localities on the Atherton Tableland. Altitudinal range from 700-900 m. Grows as an understory plant in slightly disturbed upland rain forest and wet sclerophyll forest.