Mackinlaya macrosciadea (F.Muell.) F.Muell.

Apiaceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1864) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 4: 120.

Blue Umbrella

Usually flowers and fruits as a slender single-stemmed shrub about 1-3 m tall.

Compound leaf petioles much longer than the leaflet stalks. Leaflet stalks variable in length even on the one compound leaf. Leaflet blades about 8.5-16 x 3.5-6 cm.

Flowers borne in umbels which are arranged in umbels. Flowers about 2.5 mm diam. Pollen white.

Fruit surface glaucous or blue-grey. Fruits borne in umbels which are arranged in umbels. Fruits laterally compressed and usually +/- 2-lobed, wider than long, about 9-10 x 11-13 mm, calyx lobes and styles persistent at the apex. Embryo very small, about 0.6-0.8 mm long. Cotyledons about as wide as the radicle.

Cotyledons about 20-32 x 15-18 mm. First pair of leaves alternate, ovate, margins usually toothed. Petiole bases clasping the stem. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves usually palmately compound with 3-5 leaflets. Leaflet margin with 2-5 teeth on each side of the leaflet towards the apex. Petiole winged towards the base and clasping the stem. Seed germination time 75 to 138 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NT, NEQ, CEQ and south-eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1100 m. Grows as an understory shrub in and on the margins of a variety of different types of well developed rain forest.

Panax macrosciadeus F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 2: 108(1861), Type: Queensland. Ad portum Molle insularum Cumberland Islands. Eug. Fitzalan.