Uvaria scabridula (Jessup) L.L.Zhou, Y.C.F.Zu & R.M.K.Saunders

Zhou, L. Su, Y.C.F., Chalermglin, P. & Saunders, R.M.K. (2010) Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 163: 39.

Grows into a tree-top vine, stem diameters to 6 cm recorded. Blaze marked by white granular stripes and brown fibrous stripes. Blaze odour somewhat aromatic. Wood turns orange on exposure.

Leaf blades about 5.5-17 x 2.5-6 cm, petioles about 0.3-0.5 cm long. Stellate hairs visible with a lens particularly on the underside of the leaf blade. Terminal buds and young shoots densely clothed in dark reddish brown stellate hairs. Oil dots small, just visible with a lens. Tendrils are modified branches. Oak grain in the twigs.

Pedicels about 2.5 cm long, bract about 5 x 5-6 mm. Sepals about 7 x 7 mm. Petals 3 + 3, outer petals about 15 x 15 mm, free from one another, inner petals fused at the apex forming an arch over the centre of the flower, inner petals about 13 x 13 mm. Stamens numerous, each about 3-4 mm long. Carpels 8 or more, each about 3-4 mm long, stigmas 2-lobed. Ovules in two rows on one margin. Petals shed as a single unit.

Fruiting carpels hairy, sessile on the receptacle, about 3.6-4 x 2-2.3 cm. Seeds about seven or eight per carpel, each seed about 9-10 x 5 mm. Embryo embedded in the endosperm at the base of the seed. Embryo about 1 mm long, cotyledons and radicle of similar lengths.

Cotyledon scars visible above ground level but the cotyledons don't emerge from the seed coat. First pair of leaves ovate to elliptic, apex obtuse, base obtuse to cordate, pale-coloured hairs visible on both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade narrowly elliptic to oblong, apex acute to acuminate, base truncate to cordate, simple hairs visible along the midrib on the upper surface of the leaf blade, simple and stellate hairs present on the underside. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin, midrib depressed on the upper surface. Stem and terminal bud clothed in pale brown hairs. Seed germination time 241 to 259 days.

Occurs in CYP. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 200 m. Grows in gallery rain forest and monsoon forest.

Food plant for the larval stages of the Fourbar Swordtail, Green Spotted Triangle and the Pale Green Triangle Butterflies. Sankowsky & Neilsen (2000).

Melodorum scabridulum Jessup, Flora of Australia 2: 448 (2007). Type: Queensland, Bamaga, 29 Jan. 1988, G. Sankowsky 770 & N. Sankowsky. Holo: BRI. Melodorum sp. (Claudie River BH 21171V), Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants. Trees, Shrubs & Vines. : (2003).