Sarcopteryx acuminata S.T.Reynolds

Reynolds, S.T. (1984) Austrobaileya 2(1): 57. Type: Cook District: S.F.R. 755, near Topaz, Gosschalk L.S. (17°23 S, 145°47 E), Dec 1977, B. Gray 822.

Usually grows into a small tree but also flowers and fruits as a shrub.

Terminal buds and young shoots densely clothed in dark brown hairs. Leaf bearing twigs longitudinally grooved or striated. Compound leaf rhachis with a ridge and two grooves on the upper surface. Domatia, if present, are rather obscure glandular depressions in the axils of the main lateral veins and the midrib on the underside of the leaflet blades.

Inflorescence up to 23 cm long. Calyx about 2-2.5 mm long, outer surface clothed in brown hairs. Petals about as long as the calyx, mostly glabrous. Petal scales, when viewed together as a single unit, are larger than the petals. Anthers glabrous, filaments hairy.

Fruits including the wings about 15-20 x 15-20 mm, 3-winged, each wing about 3-4 mm wide and rather thick and fleshy or leathery. Outer surface of the fruit clothed in short yellow, golden or orange hairs. Calyx lobes persistent at the base. Seeds about 6 x 3.5-4 mm, completely enclosed in the aril.

First pair of true leaves compound and opposite; one or more of the basal leaflets with one or more lobes near the base. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blades ovate or broadly lanceolate, lateral veins forming loops well inside the blade margin. terminal bud clothed in appressed, silver and brown straight hairs. Stem, compound leaf petiole and compound leaf rhachis clothed in brown hairs. Seed germination time 16 to 25 days.

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from 500-1100 m. Grows in well developed upland and mountain rain forest.