Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Terminalia volucris R.Br. ex Benth.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
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Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Bentham, G. (1864), Flora Australiensis 2: 498. Lectotype: "Island a 28 (Sweers Island) 17 Nov. 1802, R. Brown (BM, lectotype; K, iso)".

Common name

Yellow-wood

Stem

Dead bark layered.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 3-10 x 2.5-6.5 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Terminal buds clothed in white silky prostrate hairs. Midrib flush with or slightly depressed on the upper surface. Glands usually present on the underside of the leaf blade at major forks on the lateral veins.

Flowers

Inflorescence exceeding the leaves, bracts narrowly triangular, about 1 mm long, caducous. Perianth tube pubescent, lobes triangular, about 1.5 x 1.5 mm, pilose outside, sparsely villous inside. Staminal filaments glabrous, about 2-3 mm long. Disk villous. Style villous in the lower part, glabrous in the upper part.

Fruit

Mature fruits glabrous, 2-winged, body about 10-20 mm long, flattened on one side with a longitudinal wing on the other. Wings broadly elliptical to rectangular, continuous above or below the body or both. Wings about 20-70 x 20-30 mm. Seed about 10-12 x 3-5 mm, cotyledons convolute.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia, widespread across northern Australia. Occurs in WA, NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 400 m. Usually grows in open forest or savannah situations but also found in monsoon forest.

Natural History & Notes

Although Terminalia oblongata ssp. oblongata is poisonous to stock, T. oblongata [1] [2] ssp. volucris is considered a useful fodder tree. Pedley (1990).

Synonyms

Myrobalanus volucris (R.Br. ex Benth.) Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 1: 237(1891). Terminalia oblongata subsp. volucris (R.Br. ex Benth.) Pedley, Flora of Australia 18: 327 (1990).

RFK Code
904
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