Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Mischocarpus exangulatus (F.Muell.) Radlk.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers. © Barry Jago
Flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Dehisced fruit showing aril. © Barry Jago
Fruits. © CSIRO
Dehiscing fruit. © W. T. Cooper
Fruit, dehiscing fruit and transverse section. © W. T. Cooper
Leaves and fruits. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
Cotyledon and 1st leaf stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Radlkofer, L.A.T. (1879) Actes du Congres International de Botanistes .. Amsterdam for 1877 : 113.

Common name

Red Bell Mischocarp; Rex Tokoonja

Stem

Sapwood surface corrugated.

Leaves

Younger leaf bearing twigs longitudinally grooved. Leaflets about 6-8 in the compound leaf, each leaflet blade about 5-18 x 1.5-8 cm. Midrib usually raised on the upper surface of the leaflet blades. Leaflet stalks quite short and swollen at their junction with the compound leaf rhachis. Domatia are foveoles but difficult to see on hairy leaves.

Flowers

Petals about 3 x 1 mm. Stamens eight. Disk a continuous but wavy glabrous ring of tissue.

Fruit

Fruits glabrous, about 1.8-2.8 cm long (including the stipe) x 1-1.5 cm. Capsule glabrous inside. Seeds about 15-20 x 7-9 mm, aril usually covering most or all of the seed. Cotyledons green.

Seedlings

First few leaves simple, ovate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf simple, trifoliolate or pinnate with 2 or 4 leaflets, leaflet blades ovate, apex acuminate-mucronate, glabrous; small or large foveoles sometimes present on the underside; petiole and rhachis of compound leaf clothed in short prostrate hairs. Seed germination time 27 to 103 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1100 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Natural History & Notes

Victoria's Riflebird extract the aril covered seed and then usually only swallow the aril. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

Synonyms
Cupania exangulata (F.Muell.) F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 9: 91(1875). Ratonia exangulata F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 4: 156(1864), Type: In nemoribus ad sinum Rockingham Bay. Dallachy. Lecto: MEL, fide R. W. J. M. van der Ham, Blumea 23: 266 (1977). Arytera subnitida C.T.White, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 47: 56(1936), Type: Daintree River in riverine rain-forest, L.J. Brass, No. 2345; (flowering specimens); March 19, holo: BRI. Ratonia lessertiana (Cambess.) Benth. & Hook.f., Genera Plantarum 1 : 400(1838).
RFK Code
248
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