Margaritaria dubium-traceyi Airy Shaw & B.Hyland

Airy Shaw, H.K. & Hyland, B.P.M. (1976) Kew Bulletin 31: 357. Type: 12 km from Dimbulah on the Petford Road, 17 10 S., 145 00 E., 30 Dec. 1974, Hyland 7937; holo: K; iso: QRS.

Tracey's Puzzle

Grows into a small tree but also flowers and fruits as a shrub 3-4 m tall. Deciduous in the dry season.

Leaf blades about 7-8 x 2.5-3 cm, petioles about 0.7-1 cm long shallowly channelled on the upper surface. Stipules glabrous, small and inconspicuous. Twigs marked by pale lenticels.

Flowers, particularly the male flowers, on long slender pedicels, usually produced when leafless or with the first flush of leaves. Tepals about 1-1.8 mm long.

Fruit about 5-6 mm diam. Seeds bright metallic purplish-blue in colour.

Cotyledons cordate, about 5-10 x 5-13 mm, shortly petiolate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate to elliptic, about 45-55 x 16-20 mm, apex obtuse to retuse, base cuneate, distinctly petiolate, petiole about 5 mm long. Stipules about 1-2 mm long. Seed germination time 35 to 296 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from 100-700 m. Usually grows in open forest but sometimes found in monsoon forest and vine thickets.