Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Mallotus paniculatus (Lam.) Mull.Arg.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Male and female flowers. © Barry Jago
Female flowers. © Barry Jago
Leaves and male flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and male flowers. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Mueller Argoviensis, J. (1865) Linnaea 34: 189. Type: Java, Commerson; holo: P-JU 16579. Fide Forster (1999).

Common name

Turn in the Wind; Turn-in-the-wind

Stem

A small tree generally less than 25 cm dbh.

Leaves

Small oil dots visible with a lens. Petiole long. Two flat glands on the upper surface of the leaf blade at its junction with the petiole, one on each side of the midrib. Numerous small stellate hairs visible on the underside of the leaf blade with the aid of a lens. Leaf blades about 8-19 x 5.5-12 cm. Twig pith producing very little exudate.

Flowers

Floral bracts shorter than the flowers at anthesis. Flowers about 2-3 mm diam. Outer surface of the tepals densely clothed in stellate hairs. Ovary densely stellate hairy and echinate but without coloured glands, the setae or trichomes stellate hairy.

Fruit

Capsules echinate and densely stellate hairy, the trichomes also stellate hairy. Seeds +/- globular, about 2-2.5 mm diam.

Seedlings

Cotyledons elliptic or ovate, about 7-10 mm long, hairy on the upper surface. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade broadly ovate or triangular, apex acuminate, base obtuse, upper surface with a few hairs remaining along the midrib, undersurface densely clothed in white stellate hairs; very small pale yellow glands also visible on the underside of the leaf blade; petioles and terminal bud densely clothed in short simple and stellate hairs.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. This species is favoured by disturbance and is a typical regrowth species in lowland and upland rain forest. Also occurs in Asia and Malesia.

Natural History & Notes

This species may have medicinal properties.

Synonyms
Mallotus conchinchinense Lour., Flore de Conchinchinensis : 635(1790), Type: Habitat sepes, & hortus minus cultos Cochinchinae, & Chinae, Loureiro; holo: BM.
RFK Code
744
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