Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Endiandra globosa Maiden & Betche


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flower. © Barry Jago
Fruit, side views, cross sections and seed. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Habit, flower, anther & glands, fruit, seedling. © CSIRO
Cotyledon and 1st leaf stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
Seedling. © CSIRO
Flower, oblique view, 6 anthers & ovary. © CSIRO
Flower, side view, tepals removed exposing anthers & ovary. © CSIRO
Family

Maiden, J.H. & Betche, E. (1899) Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 14: 149. Type: Near Murwillumbah, Tweed River, N.S.W. (Dr. J.A. Goldsmid, December, 1898). holo: NSW 150072.

Common name

Walnut, Ball-fruited; Black Walnut; Walnut, Black; Ball-fruited Walnut; Ball Nut

Stem

A thin cream or pale brown layer generally visible beneath the subrhytidome layer before the first section of the outer blaze.

Leaves

Twigs terete or shallowly fluted, clothed in straight, appressed, pale brown hairs when young but almost glabrous at maturity. Leaf blades about 7-16.5 x 2.7-7.5 cm, green on the underside, clothed in straight, appressed, pale brown hairs when young but almost glabrous at maturity. Both surfaces of the leaf blade very shiny. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Petioles channelled on the upper surface. Oil dots visible with a lens.

Flowers

Flowers not opening very widely, the tepals remaining erect and +/- enclosing the anthers and style at anthesis. Tepals about 1.2-2.1 mm long. Staminal glands variable, sometimes six and free from one another or sometimes adjacent glands fused to form three masses. Staminodes three, sometimes 0-1, not differentiated into a head and stalk.

Fruit

Fruits globular, sometimes wider than long, about 34-60 x 33-60 mm. Seed about 24-50 x 24-50 mm. Cotyledons cream, often apricot or pink towards the periphery.

Seedlings

First pair of leaves elliptic, ovate or lanceolate, about 70-120 x 25-50 mm, apex acuminate or acute, green or slightly brownish on the underside. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves ovate, apex acuminate, glabrous; oil dots small, visible with a lens. Seed germination time 27 to 77 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ, and in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales but not in coastal central Queensland. Altitudinal range in NEQ from sea level to 360 m. Grows in well developed lowland rain forest in NEQ.

Natural History & Notes

This is an uncommon species and it is unlikely that it is utilized for timber nowadays. However, it grows large enough to produce millable logs. Wood specific gravity 0.99. Hyland (1989).

RFK Code
526
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