Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Wilkiea hylandii Whiffin


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Fruit. © B. Gray
Leaves and fruit. © B. Gray
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Whiffin, T. (2007) Flora of Australia 2: 453. Type: Qld, Timber Reserve 14 Massy, 9 Nov. 1980, B. Hyland 10898; Holo: QRS; Iso: LTB.

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-3 m tall. Oak grain in the wood.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 8.5-13 x 3-5.5 cm, petioles about 0.6-1 cm long, deeply grooved on the upper surface. Oil dots visible with a lens. Lateral veins about 7-20 forming loops inside the blade margin. Terminal buds and young shoots clothed in pale hairs. Oak grain in the twigs. Teeth, confined to the apical half of the leaf blade, irregularly spaced and usually few in number.

Flowers

Flowers +/- globular with a small apical opening. Perianth tube and lobes clothed in pale or golden hairs on the outer surface. Male flowers on pedicels about 5 mm long and opening by means of a small apical orifice. Stamens about 6-12, anthers variable in shape, sometimes sagittate, filaments clothed in short, woolly white hairs. Ovaries densely clothed in appressed long white hairs. Stigma +/- equal in diameter to the ovary.

Fruit

Receptacle orange. Fruiting carpels black, ovoid, about 15-18 x 12-14 mm. Seeds about 14 x 10 mm. Cotyledons much shorter than the radicle but slightly wider.

Seedlings

Cotyledons ovate-triangular, +/- 3-veined, about 18-33 x 15-27 mm with a petiole about 3-4 mm long. First pair of leaves with toothed margins (about 3-5 teeth on each side). At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade margin with teeth concentrated in the apical half, about 6-9 on either side, lateral veins form fairly definite loops inside the blade margin, petiole grooved on the upper surface. Terminal bud densely hairy. Seed germination time 98 to 111 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to CYP. Known only from the McIlwraith Range area and perhaps Mt Carter. Altitudinal range from 400-600 m. Grows as an understory plant in undisturbed upland and mountain rain forest.

Synonyms
Monimiaceae sp. (McIlwraith Range BH 10894), Australian Tropical Rain Forest Trees Shrubs & Vines : (2003).
RFK Code
3358
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.