Lenwebbia lasioclada (F.Muell.) N.Snow & Guymer

Myrtaceae

Snow, N. & Guymer, G.P. (2003) Systematic Botany Monographs 65: 26.

Velvet Myrtle; Myrtle, Velvet

Usually a small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh but also flowers and fruits as a shrub.

Lateral veins scarcely visible on either the upper or the lower surface. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Oil dots visible with a lens. Stipules small and inconspicuous, about six per leaf. Leaf blades about 3-9.5 x 1.6-3.8 cm.

Sepals sparsely pubescent adaxially, margins fimbriate. Petals +/- glabrous adaxially, margins fimbriate, mainly white or cream but often marked by a mauve or pink patch, about 3-4 mm long, more than 100 oil dots per petal. Staminal filaments mauve or pink towards the base.

Fruits globular, about 7-9 mm diam., pedicels hairy, slender, about 20 mm long, four calyx lobes persistent at the apex. Seeds +/- C-shaped. Testa relatively thick, hard and horny. Embryo U-shaped with the cotyledons at one end. Cotyledons about as wide as the radicle.

Cotyledons narrowly ovate to linear, about 7-12 x 2-3 mm; oil dots and intramarginal vein absent or oil dots just visible with a lens. Stipules absent. Stem above cotyledons hairy. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, with numerous oil dots visible with a lens. Stem and petiole clothed in pale, upward pointing hairs. Seed germination time 21 to 46 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ and in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 1000-1550 m. Grows in mountain rain forest.

Austromyrtus lasioclada (F.Muell.) L.S.Sm., Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 67: 35(1956). Myrtus lasioclada F.Muell., Fragm. 9: 148(1875), Type: Queensland, Bellenden Ker Range, W. Hill 187; Holo: MEL, iso: BRI.