Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Garcinia leggeae W.E.Cooper


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Male flower. CC-BY: R. Jensen
Fruit, two views and transverse section. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Cooper, W.E. (2013) Austrobaileya 9(1): 14-16. Type: Australia: Queensland. Cook District:Gordon Creek, Iron Range National Park, 5 December 2012, W.Cooper 2187, R.Jensen & J.Kemp (holo: CNS [2 sheets + spirit]; iso: BRI, CANB, K, KEP, L, MO, SING).

Stem

Shrub or small tree to 6 m, to 100 mm dbh. Exudate yellow. Dioecious.

Leaves

Petioles and twigs produce yellow exudate. Petioles 5-8 mm. Leaf blades 3-14.5 cm long x 2.5-5.7 cm wide; elliptical. Secondary veins 12-16 pairs. Leaf blades marked by lateral veins and by pale resin canals which subtend a lower angle with the midrib. Petiole channelled on the upper surface.

Flowers

Male inflorescence axillary or ramiflorous, a fascicle of 1-3 flowers. Male flowers 5-6.5 mm diam., sessile; sepals 4, 2-whorled, free, ovate, ca. 1.5 mm long x 1 mm wide; petals 4 (rarely 5), free, oblong-elliptic, 2.5-3 mm long, ca. 1.5 mm wide; androecium a fleshy receptacle free from petals, ca. 0.5 mm long; anthers 5-9, sessile or almost so, quadrate, ca. 0.4 mm long x 0.4 mm wide; pistillode absent. Female inflorescence axillary or ramiflorous, a solitary flower, sessile. Female flowers: ca. 5 mm diam.; sepals 4, 2-whorled, free, ovate, 2-3 mm long x 1.5-2 mm wide; petals 4, free, spreading widely, oblong-elliptic, ca. 3 mm long x 1.5 mm wide; staminodal phalanges 4, adnate to petals, filament-like with a globose apex, distally inflexed, ca. 1.4 mm long; antherodes 1 per phalange, ca. 0.8 mm long; ovary urceolate, ca. 2.5 mm long x 1.5 mm wide, sessile, 6-13-locular, uniovulate; stigma sessile, diameter ca. 1.5 mm.

Fruit

Fruits a fleshy berry, ovoid, asymmetrical when some ovules infertile, about 20-27mm long x 29-45 mm wide, pink-red to dark-red, 6-13 septum lines. Seeds 6-13 per fruit, about 11 mm long x 7-8.5 mm wide not including the hairs; aril fleshy, translucent whitish or pinkish. Embryo about 11 x 7 mm. Radicle small and inconspicuous compared to the cotyledons.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to CYP, known only from the Iron Range, mostly on the Claudie River and Gordon Creek floodplains. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 75 m. Grows as an understory plant in well developed rain forest.

Synonyms
Garcinia sp. Claudie River (L.J.Brass 19658), Synonym in part (see also Garcinia jensenii)  [Provisional Phrase Name].
RFK Code
1062
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