Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Erycibe coccinea (F.M.Bailey) Hoogland ex Ooststr.


Vine
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers. © CSIRO
© W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Vine stem bark and vine stem transverse section. © CSIRO
Family

Ooststroom, S.J. van (1951) Flora Malesiana ser. I 4: 431.

Stem

Vine stem diameters to 12 cm recorded. Lenticels sometimes in longitudinal lines, usually large and prominent, rather pale but darker when scraped with a knife. Blaze darkens markedly on exposure. Stem transverse sections are usually marbled with segments of wood surrounded by included bark.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 4.5-13 x 2-6 cm, petioles about 0.5-1.2 cm long shallowly grooved on the upper surface. Lateral veins forming loops near the blade margin. Midrib hairy on the underside of the leaf blade.

Flowers

Flowers often produced in abundance. Flowers about 13-20 mm diam., waxy, cream to white, pleasantly perfumed. Sepals orbicular, about 3 mm diam., densely clothed in brown +/- prostrate hairs on the outer surface. Corolla tube about 2-3 mm long, lobes 5-9 x 8-13 mm, each corolla lobe bilobed at the apex. Each corolla lobe with a basal triangular portion densely clothed in prostrate brown hairs. Anthers pyriform, about 1-1.5 x 1 mm. Staminal filaments about 1-2 mm long. Pollen white. Ovary about 1 x 1 mm. Ovules 4, erect. Stigma +/- globose, 5-ribbed.

Fruit

Fruits ellipsoidal to pyriform, about 17-20 x 11-14 mm, calyx remnants persistent at the base. Seeds about 13-17 x 8-9 mm. Cotyledons green when fresh, contorted and folded. Radicle located in the middle of the cotyledonary mass, much shorter and narrower than the cotyledons. Testa or similar material intrudes in distinct bands into the cotyledons.

Seedlings

Cataphylls 2 or 3, produced before the first true leaves. First true leaves elliptic, about 7 x 2 cm, apex obtuse, acute or acuminate, base cuneate, petioles about 0.2-0.3 cm long. Upper and lower leaf blade surfaces clothed in appressed medifixed hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blades elliptic to obovate, about 9-10 x 3-4 cm, apex acuminate, base cuneate to attenuate, petiole about 0.4 cm long, densely clothed in dark brown hairs. Midrib depressed on the upper surface. Upper and lower leaf blade surfaces sparsely clothed in brown medifixed hairs. Terminal bud densely clothed in dark brown hairs. Seed germination time 26 to 44 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 450 m. Grows in well developed lowland rain forest.

Natural History & Notes

This species has horticultural potential as it produces large numbers of pleasantly perfumed showy white flowers.

Synonyms
Erycibe paniculata var. coccinea F.M.Bailey, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Botany Bulletin 8: 80(1893), Type: I am indebted to Miss Cowley, of Kamerunga, for the ripe fruit of the above plant.
RFK Code
2067
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.