Symplocos boonjee Jessup

Jessup, L.W. (2011) Austrobaileya 8(3): 246-247. Type: Queensland. Cook District: Wooroonooran National Park, Stockwellia site, 10 July 2000, P.I.Forster PIF25915, R.Booth & R.Jensen.

Flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-3 m tall.

Leaf blades about 7-14 x 1.8-3.1 cm. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin with the secondary veins forming a series of loops outside the limits of the main lateral veins.

Flowers borne in fascicles. Flowers sessile. Calyx enclosed in several bracts, about ten. Calyx lobes about 3.5-4 mm long, calyx tube about 1.5 mm long. Corolla 5-6 mm long. Stamens about 35, in two whorls, the inner stamens shorter than the outer ones. Ovary orange.

Fruits cylindrical, bright blue-purple, about 20-25 x 10-14 mm, calyx persistent at the apex. Endocarp rather hard, dark brown. Stone about 15-18 x 3 mm, slender. Embryo about 10 x 0.5 mm. Cotyledons about 2 mm long, no wider than the radicle.

Cotyledons linear, about 13-16 x 1-2 mm. First pair of leaves with toothed margins. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade base decurrent with a narrow wing extending from the petiole down the stem to the next leaf attachment point. Leaf blade margin with 8-10 teeth on each side. Leaf blades glabrous on the upper surface but with a few hairs on the midrib on the lower surface. Seed germination time 280 to 292 days.

Endemic to NEQ, known from collections made on the Atherton Tableland and western flanks of Mt Bartle Frere. Altitudinal range from 400-1000 m. Grows as an understory plant in upland and mountain rain forest.

Symplocos sp. Boonjie (B.P.Hyland 2753).