Guilfoylia monostylis (Benth.) F.Muell.

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1874) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 8: 34.

Solo Tree; Scrub Ooline; Plum, Native; Native Plum; Guilfoylia

Usually a crooked, poorly formed tree with coppice shoots at the base. Lenticels in wavy, longitudinal lines. White granular stripes may be present in the outer blaze.

Stipules small and inconspicuous. Leaf blades about 5.5-15 x 2.2-5.4 cm. Lateral veins forming loops well inside the blade margin. Leaves often alternate and not spirally arranged on the twigs. Leafy twigs frequently green.

Flowers can be as small as 5-6 mm diam., frequently much larger. Calyx about 4-5 mm long, the lobes about 1.5-3 mm long. Petals reflexed at anthesis, about 2-8 mm long. Stamens ten, yellow, dimorphic, shorter ones opposite the petals. Style lateral, attached near the base of the ovary. Ovules 2 per ovary.

Fruits +/- globular to ellipsoid, about 15-18 x 13-15 mm. Sepals persistent at the base of the fruit. Style also persistent, lateral, attached just above the calyx in a groove. Seed about 12-13 mm long, testa soft and papery. Radicle lateral, cotyledons unequal in size, +/- oblique in the seed.

Cataphylls about 3-5 before the first true leaves are produced. First pair of leaves ovate, about 50-55 x 25-30 mm. Stipules triangular, about 1 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, apex acuminate, glabrous, about 5-7 main lateral veins each side of the midrib; stipules short, triangular. Seed germination time 41 to 86 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ and in south eastern Queensland southwards as far as coastal central New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 750-1100 m. Grows in well developed upland rain forest usually at the drier end of the scale.

Food plant for the larval stages of the Tailed Emperor Butterfly. Common & Waterhouse (1981).

Not in general cultivation, although trees are showy when in flower.