Dicliptera spicata Decne.

Acanthaceae

Decaisne, J. (1834) Nouvelles Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 3: 384. Type: Timor, 1801, Riedle s.n., lecto: P; syn: Timor, Anon s.n., G-DC, AD, MEL. Fide Barker (1986).

Usually flowers and fruits as a herb but sometimes attains the dimensions of a shrub about 1 m tall.

Leaf blades 3.5-8 x 1-3 cm, apices ending in a sharp point. Petioles 1-2.5 cm long, clothed in short appressed hairs. Both the upper and lower leaf blade surfaces clothed in short appressed hairs. Stems and twigs clothed in short appressed hairs.

Two types of flowers are produced: 1. Small flowers with a corolla ca. 1.5 mm long which does not open but is shed as an operculum. Pollination takes place in the unopened flower. 2. Larger flowers with a 2-lipped corolla 5-8 mm long. Flowers are produced in dense ca. globular inflorescences mainly composed of ovate or elliptical pairs of bracts subtending each flower. Each bract ends in a long subulate point. Bracts up to 11 x 4.5 mm.

Capsules small, flat, ca. 3(?) mm long. Seeds flat, orbicular in outline, ca. 1.5 mm diam. Testa surface pustulate. Cotyledons orbicular, ca.1.5 mm diam. Radicle ca.1.2 mm long, curved along the edge of the cotyledons.

Features not available.

Occurs in NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 150 m. Found in riparian vegetation and in some of the drier types of rain forest and monsoon forest. Also occurs in Timor.

Dicliptera racemifica F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 6: 89(1867), Type: Cape York, Daemel s.n., lecto: MEL; iso: K. Fide Barker (1986).