Meiogyne heteropetala (F.Muell.) D.C.Thomas, Chaowasku & R.M.K.Saunders

Xue, B., Thomas, D.C., Chaowasku, T., Johnson, D.M. & Saunders, R.M.K. (2014) Systematic Botany 39(2): 401.

Orange Annona

Usually grows into a small tree, not exceeding 30 cm dbh, but usually flowers and fruits as a shrub.

Leaf blades about 4.5-12 x 2-7.5 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Petioles very short. Younger twigs hairy. Twig bark fibrous when stripped. Oak grain in the twigs.

Flowers dark maroon to almost black. Sepals triangular, about 5-6 x 3 mm. Petals densely clothed in prostrate hairs. Outer petals about 25-40 mm long. Inner petals about 6-8 mm long. Inner surface of petals dotted with purple glands. Anthers brown, filaments pink. Ovaries 1-5, clothed in simple hairs.

Fruiting carpels +/- sessile, about 20-25 x 10-15 mm, densely clothed in simple erect hairs. Seeds about 7 x 5 mm, usually about four per carpel. Embryo minute.

First pair of leaves alternate, simple and ovate. Oil dots visible with a lens. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves elliptic to ovate with a few pale hairs on the upper surface along the midrib; oil dots very small, just visible with a lens. Seed germination time 64 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards towards south eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 100 m. Grows in drier lowland rain forest and monsoon forest.

Food plant for the larval stages of the Green Spotted Triangle and the Pale Green Triangle Butterflies. Sankowsky & Neilsen (2000).

Fitzalania heteropetala (F.Muell.) F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 4: 34 (1864). Uvaria heteropetala F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 3: 1(1862), Type: In insulis Cumberland Islands. Eug. Fitzalan. Saccopetalum bidwillii Benth., Flora Australiensis 1: 53(1863), Type: Queensland. Wide Bay, Bidwill.