Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Gynochthodes oresbia Halford & A.J.Ford


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

Ford, A.J. & Halford, D.A. (2006) Austrobaileya 7: 358. Type: Queensland, State Forest Reserve 194 (Western?), 30 Dec. 2002, B. Gray 8390. Holo: BRI; iso: QRS.

Stem

Vine stem diameters to 10 cm recorded. Bark finely tessellated, the flakes about 2-3 mm wide. No bark inclusions in the wood.

Leaves

Leaf blades brittle, cracking and breaking when folded back on themselves. Leaf blades about 5.5-14 x 1.5-6 cm, petioles about 1-1.5 cm long. Stipules about 2-4 mm long, fused or almost fused at the base and forming a short sheath around the twigs. Lateral veins forming distinct loops well inside the blade margin. Leaf blades dry to a dark colour, almost black. Stubs from axillary branches or inflorescences persist in the leaf axils.

Flowers

Flowers about 8-9 mm diam. Hypanthium about 2 mm long. Calyx lobes absent. Corolla tube about 2.5 mm long, lobes about 6.5 mm long. Corolla tube +/- glabrous on the inner surface. Anthers about 2.5 mm long, filaments about 1.5-2 mm long. Style about 5 mm long. Stigmas 2, each about 3 mm long.

Fruit

Fruits depressed globular, about 13-15 x 8-12 mm. Seeds up to four per fruit, each seed about 6-8 x 4.5 mm and surrounded by a bony endocarp forming a pyrene about 10 mm long. Embryo about 3 x 0.4 mm. Cotyledons about as wide as the radicle. Adaxial surfaces of the cotyledons appressed.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from 590m to 1200 m. Grows in lowland and upland rain forest.

Natural History & Notes

Often found as a shrub when juvenile and before the stems twine; forms a woody canopy vine in mature form.

Synonyms
Morinda sp. (Black Leaves BG 1677), Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants, Trees, Shrubs & Vines : (2003). Morinda sp. (Mt Finnigan L.J.Webb 12114), Names and Distribution of Queensland Plantsm Algae and Lichens. : 173-177(2002). Gynochtodes sp. (Lamb Range), Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest : 442(2004).
RFK Code
2107
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