Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Helicia blakei Foreman


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Leaves and Flowers. © A. Ford & F. Goulter
Flowers and buds. © CSIRO
Leaves and fruits. © CSIRO
Fruit, several views and cross section. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Foreman, D.B. (1983) Brunonia 6(1): 66. Type: Boonjee, Near Malanda, Queensland, S.T. Blake 15226, 29.vii.1943 (holotypus BRI, isotypus MEL).

Common name

Blake's Silky Oak; Oak, Blake's Silky

Stem

Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh. Oak grain in the wood and a corresponding pattern in the blaze.

Leaves

Oak grain in the twigs. Leaf blades about 5.5-12.5 x 2-4 cm. Midrib raised on the upper surface of the leaf blade. Young shoots clothed in prostrate, rust-coloured hairs.

Flowers

Tepals 15-17 mm long, ferruginous-pilose. Ovary glabrous. Ovules 2.

Fruit

Fruits ovoid, about 8-17 x 5-15 mm. Style 11-14 mm long, persistent at the apex of the fruit. Seed about 6-14 x 4-10 mm. Cotyledons thick and fleshy, about 10 x 8 mm. Radicle straight, about 2 mm long.

Seedlings

Cotyledons fleshy, about 6-12 x 3-8 mm, apex acute sometimes +/- lobed, base sagittate, petiole very short. First pair of leaves elliptic, margin serrate. Stem and terminal bud clothed in rusty brown hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic to obovate, apex acuminate to acute, base attenuate, margin with 4-11 coarse teeth on each side. Both the upper and lower surfaces clothed in rusty brown, medifixed hairs with arms of radically different lengths. Stems and petioles clothed in similar hairs. Lateral veins usually forming loops inside the blade margin. Seed germination time 17 to 33 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, known only from a few collections from Boonjee, the Johnstone River Valley and perhaps Thornton Peak. Altitudinal range from 160-1250 m. Grows as an understory tree mainly in well developed upland rain forest.

RFK Code
937
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.