Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Gossia shepherdii (F.Muell.) N.Snow & Guymer


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
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Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Snow, N. & Guymer, G. P. (2003) Systematic Botany Monographs 65: 68.

Common name

Lignum; Shepherd's Ironwood

Stem

Bark very thin, often greenish.

Leaves

Usually two intramarginal veins, the outer one indistinct and the inner one more obvious, about 2-4 mm from the margin. Oil dots visible with a lens, more obvious on the underside of the leaf blade. Leaf blades about 5.2-8.5 x 2.3-5 cm. Leafy twigs slender, up to 2 mm in diam.

Flowers

Petals and calyx lobes pubescent adaxially. Petals about 5-8 mm long, sometimes exhibiting a pink flush, more than 100 oil dots per petal.

Fruit

Fruits globular, about 10 mm diam., calyx lobes persistent at the apex. Testa relatively thick and hard.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1100 m. Grows as an understory tree in rain forest on a variety of sites but tends to be more common in drier, more seasonal rain forest.

Synonyms
Austromyrtus shepherdii (F. Mueller) L.S. Smith, Proceedings Royal Society Queensland 67: 35(1956). Austromyrtus sp. (Windsor Tableland BG 412), : (). Myrtus shepherdii F. Mueller, Fragmenta 9: 148(1875), Type: Qld, Rockingham Bay, J. Dallachy s.n.; Lecto: MEL; Isolecto: BRI.
RFK Code
566
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