Palmeria hypotephra (F.Muell.) Domin

Monimiaceae

Domin, K. (1913) Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 12: 390.

Vine stem diameters to 30 cm recorded. Vascular rays obvious in the bark. Blaze odour sometimes like that of spice.

Leaf blades about 3.5-11.5 x 1.5-5.5 cm, petioles about 0.5-1 cm long. Lateral veins forming definite loops inside the blade margin. Underside of the leaf blade densely clothed in very small, short, pale-coloured stellate hairs. (Adventitious shoots from the lower stem produce leaves which are sparsely clothed with simple hairs on the underside.) Scattered stellate hairs usually persisting on the upper surface of the leaf blade, each hair usually associated with a gland (?) Oak grain in the twigs.

Male flowers: Flowers about 6-7 mm diam., receptacle about 3-5 mm diam., perianth densely clothed in short stellate hairs, tepals with their tips pointing inwards and meeting at the centre of the flower. Stamens 25-30 per flower, anthers about 1 mm long, sessile. Anthers shortly hairy on the back but with longer hairs at the apex. Female flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam., perianth densely clothed in stellate hairs on both the inner and outer surfaces. Tepals small, less than 0.5 mm long, around a very narrow orifice less than 1 mm wide. Carpels about 10. Ovules one per carpel.

Fruiting receptacles green outside but red inside, irregular in shape, about 9-14 x 10-18 mm, splitting irregularly to expose the hairy inner surface and 1-7 seed-like fruiting carpels. Fruiting carpels globose, brown to black about 6 x 6-7 mm. Seeds about 6 x 4.5-5 mm, one per carpel. Testa, thick, hard and bony. Embryo about 1-1.5 mm long, located at the more pointed end of the seed. Cotyledons divergent, adaxial surfaces not appressed. Radicle less than 0.5 mm long.

Features not available.

Occurs in NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1550 m. Grows in lowland, upland and mountain rain forest but appears to be more frequently encountered at higher elevations.

Morinda hypotephra F.Muell., The Victorian Naturalist 6: 55(1889), Type: Mount Bellenden-Ker, 1887, W. Sayer; Lecto: MEL 274868. Fide T. Whiffin & D. Foreman (2007).