Terminalia platyphylla F.Muell.

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1861) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 2: 150. Type: Victoria River, NT, Jan. 1856, F. Mueller; lecto: MEL, fide N. B. Byrnes, Contr. Queensland Herb. 20: 30 (1977).

Plum, Wild; Wild Plum

Dead bark layered.

Leaf blades about 7-22 x 5-14 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Two glands on the upper part of the petiole. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in tortuous hairs. Terminal buds densely clothed in pale silky hairs.

Inflorescence shorter than the leaves, bracts triangular, about 1 mm long, caducous. Perianth tube pubescent outside, lobes deltoid, about 1.5 x 1.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely villous inside. Staminal filaments about 4 mm long. Disk villous. Style villous.

Mature fruits glabrescent, oblong to broadly spindle-shaped with a distinct beak of varying length, about 20-40 x 7-15 mm overall, including the beak. Seed about 13 x 3 mm, cotyledons convolute.

Cotyledons wider than long, about 20 x 25-30 mm, apex truncate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves obovate or ovate, apex rounded, base attenuate, underside and margins clothed in white hairs; petiole, stem, and terminal bud clothed in white hairs. Seed germination time 15 to 48 days.

Endemic to Australia, widespread across northern Australia. Occurs in WA, NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 600 m. Typically grows along creeks and watercourses through open forest country but also found in gallery forest.