Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Cupaniopsis wadsworthii (F.Muell.) Radlk.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Leaf and inflorescence [not vouchered]. CC-BY: S. & A. Pearson.
Flower [not vouchered]. CC-BY: S. & A. Pearson.
Young fruit [not vouchered]. CC-BY: S. & A. Pearson.
Dehiscing capsule [not vouchered]. CC-BY: S. & A. Pearson.
Seeds with aril [not vouchered]. CC-BY: S. & A. Pearson.
Family

Radlkofer, L.A.T. (1879) Sitzungsberichte der Mathematisch-Physikalischen Classe der Königlichen Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Munchen 4: 530, 534, 585.

Common name

Duckfoot

Stem

Shrub or small tree to 5 metres; bark grey-brown with lighter blotches, horizontal ridges and fine longitudinal furrows; buds and young stems with dense brown simple hairs; stems becoming glabrous with prominent lenticels; stipules absent.

Leaves

Leaves pinnate, alternate, 45 - 120mm, terminal leaflet absent; petiole 5 - 15mm; leaflets 2 - 4 (6 in juvenile); lamina broadly cuneate, 20 - 75mm by 7 - 45mm; glossy and glabrous on both surfaces except for scattered hairs along under surface of main veins; pinnately veined with 4 - 6 main laterals each side of midrib; main veins yellowish and prominent above, raised and prominent below; apex concavely truncate, apiculate; base cuneate to basal pulvinus; margins entire; domatia small, in angles between main laterals and midrib; petiolules very short to absent except for pulvinus 0.5mm long.

Flowers

Inflorescences raceme-like thyrsoids, axillary, 10 - 165mm long; flowers functionally unisexual, white, 6 - 7mm diam.; sepals mostly 5; petals mostly 5, 1.5 - 4.6mm long with 2 erect scales at base; male flowers with 8 stamens and rudimentary ovary; female flowers with 8 staminodes and 3-locular superior ovary.

Fruit

A dry obovoid capsule, 15m - 20mm long, 3-angled, shortly hairy; seed 1 per lobe, black; aril fleshy, orange, mostly covering seed.

Seedlings

Feature not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Queensland, occurs uncommonly in the southern part of NEQ, widespread in CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 740 m. Grows in vine forest and drier rainforests.

Synonyms
Harpullia wadsworthii F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 4(24): 1, t. XXVI (1863), Type: Rockhampton, Qld. Thozet & J.Dallachy.
RFK Code

3646

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