Eucryphia wilkiei B.Hyland

Hyland, B.P.M. (1997) Austrobaileya 4(4): 590. Type: Queensland, southeastern slopes of Mt Bartle Frere, Jan 1970, J. Wilkie s.n.; holo: QRS; iso: BRI.

Eucryphia

Flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-6 m tall.

Leaf or leaflet blades rather thick and leathery, about 20-50 x 7-15 mm with both simple and compound leaves on the same twig. Leaf or leaflet blade margin usually recurved. Leaf or leaflet blades clothed in long dense brownish hairs when young, becoming glabrous with age, whitish on the under surface. Main lateral veins scarcely distinguishable on the upper surface of the leaf or leaflet blades but quite easily seen on the underside. Stipules about 8-10 x 3-4 mm, enclosing the terminal bud, reddish brown, glabrous except for the margins which are densely covered in long hairs. Stipular scars rather large and conspicuous.

Flowers quite large with the petals spreading and poppy-like (Papaver spp.), about 2 cm diam. Calyx lobes densely clothed in pale brown hairs on the outer surface. Petals glabrous. Stamens very numerous, anthers yellow. Ovary densely hairy, locules and styles 6-8.

Capsules ellipsoid, about 12-16 mm long, clothed in long, pale brown hairs on the outer surface. Endocarp very hard and bony, deeply ribbed, star-like in transverse section, with seven partitions. Only one seed per locule. Seed + wing about 5-6 mm long. Wing narrow encircling the seed. Embryo green, about 3 mm long, radicle shorter than the cotyledons. Endosperm scanty.

Seed germination time 16 to 21 days. Cotyledons elliptic, about 7-8 x 5 mm, apex emarginate-retuse, distinctly notched, venation difficult to discern, petioles about 1 mm long, cotyledonary stipules small, less than 1 mm long. Cotyledon lower surface with scattered pale hairs, upper surface hairier than the lower. Hypocotyl and stem clothed in pale brown, crispate hairs. First pair of leaves with margins with a few teeth in the upper half, +/- glaucous white on the underside, both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade hairy. Stipules interpetiolar, hairy, triangular, about 1.5 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex apiculate, base obtuse, margin smooth or with 1 or 2 teeth on each side. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in appressed hairs, underside almost white. Stipules about 7-10 mm long, hairy and enclosing the terminal bud.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from the upper slopes of Mt Bartle Frere. Altitudinal range from 1200-1500 m. Grows among granite boulders in stunted windswept vegetation.

This shrub has high horticultural potential for pot and garden culture but requires full sun to produce the large white flowers.