Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Myrsine porosa F.Muell.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers [not vouchered]. CC-BY J.L. Dowe
Fruit, many views, cross section and seed. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1865) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 108. Type: In valle fluvii Mackays River; ad torrentes montium Seaview Range, porre in convalli Dalrymples Gap. Dallachy.

Common name

Red Muttonwood; Muttonwood, Northern; Muttonwood, Red; Northern Muttonwood

Stem

Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh. Oak grain in the wood.

Leaves

Three types of oil dots visible with a lens, large translucent circular dots, large translucent streaky dots and smaller reddish dots. Leaf blades about 4.8-16 x 1.6-6.2 cm, margin often recurved near the base. Petioles about 3-7 mm long. Midrib depressed on the upper surface. Venation difficult to distinguish, about 20 veins on each side of midrib.

Flowers

Flowers predominantly 5-merous. Inflorescence much shorter than the leaves and shorter than or approximating the petioles. Pedicels about 1-4 mm long. Calyx lobes marked by orange glands. Corolla tube about 0.5 mm long, corolla lobes about 2.5-3 mm long, outer surface glabrous but margins and inner surface minutely papillose. Pollen white. Ovary about 1 x 0.6-0.7 mm. Style and/or stigma pale green, about 3-4 mm long in the female flowers. Stigma broad, irregularly lobed, capitate.

Fruit

Infructescence much shorter than the leaves and scarcely exceeding the petioles. Pedicels about 1.5-4 mm long. Fruits globular or depressed globular, about 4-7 x 3-5 mm. Calyx persistent at the base. Calyx usually 5-lobed. Seeds about 3 x 3 mm. Cotyledons about as wide as the radicle or slightly narrower but forming only a small part of the whole embryo.

Seedlings

Cotyledons ovate, about 7-11 x 6-8 mm, margins toothed with about 1-4 teeth on each side. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex acute, base attenuate, teeth small, 4-7 each side of the leaf blade, glabrous; oil dots mainly translucent, numerous, visible with a lens; petiole grooved on the upper surface. Terminal bud clothed in reddish scale-like hairs. Seed germination time 86 to 88 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia, occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as southern Queensland. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1200 m. Grows in rain forest and drier, more seasonal rain forest.

Synonyms
Rapanea porosa (F.Muell.) Mez var. porosa, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1056(1928). Rapanea porosa (F.Muell.) Mez, Das Pflanzenreich Heft 9: 355(1902). Rapanea porosa var. magnifolia Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89: 1056(1928), Type: Queensland, Picnic Creek, Russell River, K. Domin, Jan. 1910.
RFK Code
309
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.