Sarcotoechia villosa S.T.Reynolds

Reynolds, S.T. () Flora of Australia 25: 201. Type: Mt Lewis, Timber Reserve 66, Qld, V.K.Moriarty 2537; holo: QRS.

A small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh.

Compound leaves usually consisting of two leaflets. Leaflet blades about 3.5-12 x 2-3.5 cm, sessile or very shortly stalked and swollen at their junction with the compound leaf petiole. Midrib hairy, +/- flush with the upper surface of the leaflet blade. Terminal buds and leaf bearing twigs densely clothed in pale, +/- erect hairs.

Inflorescence about 2-7 cm long, pedicels up to 2.5 mm long. Calyx about 1.5 mm long, puberulent, lobes ovate. Petals ovate, shortly clawed, about 1.5-2 mm long. Stamens usually eight, filaments hairy, about 2-3 mm long, inserted inside the orange disk.

Fruits subglobose, about 15-25 x 15-20 mm, 3-locular, but usually 1-seeded. Valves glabrous except for the villous sutures. Aril cupular, bilobed, confined to the base of the seed. Seed ovoid, about 6-7 x 4-5 mm.

First pair of leaves +/- elliptic, blades about 15-20 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade +/- oblanceolate, about 11-20 cm long, apex acuminate, base attenuate; midrib hairy and raised on the upper surface; petiole, stem and terminal bud densely clothed in pale, +/- erect hairs. Seed germination time 7 to 24 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the area between Mossman, Mt Molloy and Kuranda. Altitudinal range from 50-1000 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites. This species has one of the shortest flowering-fruiting cycles yet found in northern Australian rain forest, viz. two weeks.