Meiogyne verrucosa Jessup

Jessup, L.W. (2007) Flora of Australia 2: 450. Type: Queensland, Shoteel Creek, Clohesy River, 27 Nov. 1984, L.W. Jessup 591. Holo: BRI. Iso: CANB.

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub 2-3 m tall.

Leaf bearing twigs pale, +/- glabrous. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Oak grain visible in transverse sections of the twigs. Leaf blades about 7-10 x 2-3 cm, slightly unequal-sided at the base. Petioles quite short, about 0.2 cm long, grooved on the upper surface.

Flower odour resembles that of a banana (Musa spp.). Sepals and petals thick and fleshy, hairy on the outer and inner surfaces. Sepals about 4 x 4 mm. Petals in two whorls, each petal about 10 x 7 mm. Stamens numerous, arranged in spirals on a conic receptacle. Filaments short and stout, less than 0.5 mm long. Anthers about 2 x 1 mm. Ovaries densely hairy, about 6-10 per flower. Ovules about 6 or 7 per ovary.

Fruiting carpels sausage-shaped, about 2.5 x 1.3 cm, surface clothed in short velvety hairs. Seeds 4 or 5 per carpel, each seed disc-like, about 7 x 6 x 3 mm, testa not obviously textured or sculptured. Embryo about 1 mm long.

First pair of leaves elliptic to obovate, midrib depressed on the upper surface. Oil dots visible with a lens. Upper surface of the leaf blade glabrous, lower surface with brownish hairs along the midrib only. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex bluntly pointed, base obtuse, midrib depressed on the upper surface. Lateral veins 8-10 on each side of the midrib and forming indefinite loops inside the blade margin. Terminal bud densely clothed in pale sericeous hairs. Seed germination time 246 days.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from Mt Finnigan, Shiptons Flat, Mt Lewis, Windsor Tableland and the Lamb Range. Altitudinal range from 250-1250 m. Grows as an understory shrub in well developed mountain rain forest on soils derived from granite.

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