Glochidion sessiliflorum Airy Shaw var. sessiliflorum

Phyllanthaceae

Airy Shaw, H.K. (1980) Kew Bulletin 35: 640.

Sessile Buttonwood; Pin Flower Tree; Buttonwood

Sometimes flowering and fruiting when no more than a shrub. Dead bark layered.

Stipules triangular, about 1.5 mm long. Leaf blades about 5.5-14 x 2.5-5.5 cm. Midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. Leaf bearing twigs mainly glabrous.

Male flowers: Inflorescence without a peduncle and strictly axillary. Flowers about 3 mm diam. without a disk. Female flowers: Flowers about 1.5-2 mm diam., +/- sessile. Style +/- columnar, exserted at flowering.

Capsules about 14-lobed, concave at the apex, about 15 mm diam., resembling a miniature Queensland Blue pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). Cotyledons cupped, much wider than the radicle.

Cotyledons about 12-13 x 8-9 mm. Hypocotyl hairy. First pair of leaves with stipules about 1 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, apex shortly acuminate or mucronate, base cuneate, glabrous, veins 6-9 forming loops inside the leaf blade margin. Stipules shortly triangular. Leaves are often produced on shoots which resemble pinnate leaves. Seed germination time 17 days.

Endemic to CYP, restricted to the Claudie River and McIlwraith Range areas. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 450 m. Grows in or on the margins of well developed rain forest.

Glochidion sessiliflorum Airy Shaw, Kew Bulletin 31: 350(1976), Type: Qld, Claudie River, lat. 12 deg 45 S., long. 143 deg 15 E., rain forest, alt. 75 m, 16 Oct. 1974, Hyland 7805; holo: K.