Homalium circumpinnatum F.M.Bailey

Bailey, F.M. (1892) Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Botany Bulletin 5: 17. Type: Cairns, E. Cowley.

Shuttlecock Plant; Brown Boxwood; Boxwood, Brown

Orange speckles and stripes usually apparent in the blaze; orange layers may also be apparent.

Leaf blades about 5-9 x 2-4.5 cm. About 5-15 teeth on each side of the leaf blade. Petiole shallowly channelled on the upper surface. Leafy twigs often marked by numerous pale elongated lenticels.

Inflorescence about 4-18 cm long. Flowers about 3-4 mm diam., unpleasantly perfumed, subtended by 3 small bracts about 0.5 mm long. Perianth about 1.5-2.5 mm long. Sepals about 1.5 x 0.75 mm. Petals about 2 x 1 mm. Stamens 15, usually in fascicles of three (sometimes two), opposite each petal. Each stamen about 2.5 mm long, anthers very small. Pollen yellow. Ovary densely hairy on the inner surface, the hairs being quite long and almost filling the ovary cavity.

Fruits about 5-6 mm long, resembling a shuttlecock. Petals and sepals persistent.

Cotyledons orbicular, about 5-7 mm diam. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic or ovate, glabrous on the upper surface, margin serrate, teeth produced throughout the margin of the leaf blade; midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. Stipules very small, triangular. Seed germination time 12 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Grows in well developed rain forest and drier rain forest often associated with Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta).