Grewia mesomischa Burret

Burret, K.E. (1924) Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 9 : 1169. Type: Queensland, Cape Sidmouth (comm. Nat. Herb. of Victoria, Melbourne sub n. 8).

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-3 m tall.

Leaves two ranked. Leaf blades about 6-10 x 4.5-7 cm, petioles about 0.7-1.2 cm long, margins toothed with about 30-60 teeth on each side of the leaf blade. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in stellate hairs. Stipules linear, filiform, about 4-5 mm long. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped.

Flowers about 7-13 mm diam. Sepals about 7-11 x 1.5-2 mm, outer surface densely clothed in stellate hairs, green on the inner surface and whitish on the outer surface. Petals broadly obovate, 5-lobed (perhaps 7-lobed), each petal about 3-3.5 x 1-2 mm, much shorter than the sepals. Inner surface of each petal with an orbicular gland surrounded by a ring of hairs close to the base of each petal. Stamens about 25-30 attached to a short staminal tube, free filaments glabrous, about 2.5-4 mm long, anthers about 0.5-1 x 0.5-1 mm. Ovary clothed in long, simple erect hairs. Style about 5 mm long, exceeding the stamens, stigmas 2-4-lobed.

Fruits usually deeply bilobed, about 6-9 mm long and about 12-14 mm wide along the widest dimension. Pericarp sticky. 'Seeds' (actually pyrenes) about 5-6 mm long, surface tuberculate or wrinkled. Usually two true seeds contained in each pyrene. Each seed about 4 mm long. Cotyledons much broader and longer than the radicle.

Cotyledons ovate to elliptic, about 9-12 x 7-8 mm, petioles about 2-4 mm long, densely clothed in white hairs. First pair of leaves +/- orbicular. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade rhomboid to obovate, apex obtuse, base cordate, margin ciliate with 35-45 small teeth on each side; upper surface of the leaf blade clothed in simple and stellate hairs, lower surface densely clothed in stellate hairs, stipules linear, about 3 mm long, hairy. Taproot thick and swollen, carrot-like (Daucus carota). Seed germination time 14 to 173 days.

Probably endemic to Queensland, occurs in NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 700 m. Grows on the margins of monsoon forest and in vine thickets but is also found in the open forest understory.