Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Melhania brachycarpa Blume


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Family

Domin, K. (1930) Bibliotheca Botanica 22(89): 972. Type: Chillagoe, Queensland.

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a herb but occasionally grows into a shrub 1 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 4-5 x 1.5-2 cm. Twigs, petioles and both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in simple and stellate hairs. Stipules filiform, about 3-11 mm long, hairy. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped.

Flowers

Pedicels about 5-10 mm long. Epicalyx of 3-5 lobes, about 10-12 x 2 mm, clothed in stellate hairs. Sepals about 14-17 mm long, stellate hairy on the outer surface, inner surface glabrous. Petals glabrous, withering and remaining around the ovary following anthesis. Stamens five, alternating with five larger petaloid staminodes. Pollen yellow. Ovary densely clothed in long stellate or branched hairs.

Fruit

Capsules about 7-9 mm long, densely stellate hairy on the outer surface. Calyx and epicalyx persistent at the base. Seeds about 1.5 x 1 mm. Testa tuberculate. Cotyledons folded.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Probably endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range in northern Australia from 300 to 660 m. Grows as an understory plant in vine thickets and monsoon forest.

RFK Code
3580
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