Symplocos gittinsii (Noot.) Jessup

Jessup, L.W. (2011). Austrobaileya 8(3): 238-239.

Gittin's Hazelwood; Hairy White Hazelwood; White Hazelwood

Blaze fairly uniform in colour and texture. Blaze usually without hard, brittle, brown, worm-like inclusions.

Petiole and midrib purplish on the underside of the leaf blade. Leaf blades about 7-18 x 4-6.5 cm. Blade margin recurved, almost throughout, and inconspicuously toothed towards the apex.

Inflorescence up to 13 cm long, axis glabrous. Calyx tube glabrous, about 1 mm long, lobes about 0.75-1 mm long. Corolla about 5-6 mm long. Stamens about 60-70. Style glabrous, about 4-5 mm long.

Fruit ellipsoid or ovoid, about 6-7 x 4-5 mm, calyx lobes persisting at the apex. Endocarp thick and hard, stone about 5-6 x 3.5-4 mm.

Cotyledons linear, about 12-15 x 2 mm. First pair of leaves ovate, about 10-15 x 6-7 mm, margins with 1-4 teeth on each side of the leaf blade. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate to attenuate, margin serrate, glabrous on the upper surface; petiole glabrous.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from 500-1200 m. Grows in well developed upland and mountain rain forest on a variety of sites.

Fruit eaten by several species of birds. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

The species epithet commemorates Clifford Halliday Gittins. Although Nooteboom indicated (Brunonia 4(2): 321 (1981)) that his original misspelling of the varietal epithet as "gittonsii" had to be retained, it is treated as an error to be corrected under ICBN Art. 60.1 (Vienna Code (2006).

Symplocos cochinchinensis var. gittinsii Noot., Leiden Botanical Series 1: 162 (1975). Type: G.H. Gittons 494 (BRI). N. Kennedy Distr., Mt. Spec Range.Symplocos cochinensis subsp. thwaitesii var. gittinsii Noot., Leiden Botanical Series 1: 162(1975), Type: G. H. Gittons 494, holo: BRI.