Lenbrassia australiana (C.T.White) G.W.Gillett var. australiana

Gesneriaceae

Morley, B.D. (1978) Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 1(2): 191.

Lenbrassia

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 3-4 m tall.

Leaf blades about 8-20 x 2-7.5 cm with septate hairs on both the upper and lower surfaces. Teeth +/- evenly spaced along the margin of the leaf blade. Twigs and terminal buds clothed in tortuous brown hairs.

Calyx about 9-13 mm long, strigose on the outer surface, lobes filiform, longer than the calyx tube. Corolla about 17-20 mm long, tube hairy on the outer surface but glabrous on the inner (adaxial) surface. Anthers fused together in the flower bud, filaments hairy towards the base and spirally twisted after anthesis. Staminode one, glabrous, head +/- sagittate. Pollen white.

Fruits shortly hairy, obclavate, about 20-25 mm long. Calyx persistent at the base of the fruit and style persistent at the apex. Seeds numerous, about 0.6-0.7 mm long, testa marked by curved longitudinal striations.

Cotyledons about 1.5-2 x 1.5-2 mm. First pair of leaves sparsely clothed in long white hairs on the upper and lower surfaces, margins toothed. At the tenth leaf stage: lateral veins curving throughout their length but not forming loops, both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade, stem and terminal bud clothed in septate hairs. Seed germination time 31 to 80 days.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from the Mt Lewis-Mt Spurgeon area and from near Tully. Altitudinal range from 800-1200 m. Grows as an understory plant in well developed mountain rain forest particularly in moist situations along creeks, gullies and soaks.

Lenbrassia australiana (C.T.White) G.W.Gillett, Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 55: 433(1974). Coronanthera australiana C.T.White, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 47: 73(1936), Type: Queensland, Mt. Demi, 6 Feb. 1932, L.J. Brass 2087; holo: BRI.