Parsonsia larcomensis J.B.Williams

Williams, J.B. in Orchard, A.E. (ed.) (1996), Parsonsia. Flora of Australia 28: 160, 316. Type: T: Mt Larcom, near the top in rock crevices, Qld, 23 Mar. 1966, S.T.Blake 22450; holo: BRI; iso: CANB, NSW.

A prostrate climber with ascendant wiry stems, attached to rock and soil by adventitious roots along stem. Stem exudate clear turning dark yellow on exposure to air. Stems hairless or with sparse short appressed hairs.

New growth reddish. Leaves simple, opposite. Petiole 3-7 mm long, channelled above Leaf blades ovate to broadly elliptic, 1-4.5 cm long, 1-2.2 cm wide, base rounded or cordate, margin entire ± revolute, apex acuminate, acute of apiculate. Basal lamina colleters absent. Lateral veins about 5-8 pairs. Upper surface green and hairless, lower surface hairless or rarely with sparse short hairs, yellowish green or glaucous. Domatia absent. Small stipule-like glands usually present on the twigs between the petiole bases and in axils of leaves, linear to triangular, 0.2-0.4 mm long.

Inflorescence axillary and terminal, flowers arranged in a panicle of cymes (cymes of panicle usually in pairs). Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous, 3-5 mm diam. Pedicels 3-5 mm long. Calyx shortly tubular, lobes about 4.5-5 mm long, recurved to spreading, green. Corolla tubular, tube inflated at base, tube 7.5-8 mm long, with spreading to recurved lanceolate or narrowly deltoid lobes, 2-3 mm long, whitish with reddish spots in throat; with a ring of hairs in throat of tube (not bearded); corolline corona absent. Stamens 5, slightly twisted around the style, anthers about 3 mm long, fused to form a cone around style head, anther tails straight, filaments glabrous, 6-7 mm long, stamens included in tube. Nectary (disk) scales connate and forming a thin tube, with 5 or 6 apical lobes. Ovary superior, 2-locular, style head dilated and adherent to anther cone.

Fruit dry when mature, a capsule, narrowly terete, 7-11 cm long, 0.5-1.1 cm wide, finely hairy. Seeds numerous, with a silky coma or plume attached to end of seed.

Features not available.

Occurs in the southern part of CEQ, in the Rockhampton-Mt Perry area. Mostly found in open heathland and shrub land at or near the summits of mountain peaks, in shallow loamy soils on cliffs or among outcrops of acid volcanic rocks and serpentinites at 350 to 750 m above sea level (Williams, 1996). Occasionally found in riverine and dry rainforest communities.

This profile information and associated coding has been adapted from Cooper & Cooper (2004), Harden et al. (2014) and Forster & Williams (1996).