Abrophyllum ornans (F.Muell.) Hook.f. ex Benth.

Rousseaceae

Bentham, G. (1864) Flora Australiensis 2: 437.

Abrophyllum; Beautiful Abrophyllum; Native Hydrangea

Grows into a tree seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh, but also flowers and fruits as a shrub.

Leaf blades about 11-20 x 3-7 cm, petioles about 3 cm long. Main lateral veins and some reticulate veins depressed on the upper surface of the leaf blade. Marginal teeth comparatively small and papillose. Twig pith septate.

Petals about 4-5 mm long. Ovary orange, style, if present, very short, stigma usually 5-lobed, occasionally 4-lobed.

Fruits about 8-12 mm long. Seeds small. Testa translucent brown, finely rugose.

Cotyledons elliptic, about 1-1.5 mm long. First pair of leaves clothed in simple hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade margin serrate with teeth all around the margin; both the upper and lower leaf surfaces clothed in simple hairs, likewise the stem and terminal bud. Seed germination time 47 to 129 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards to south-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 300-1200 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed upland and mountain rain forest but more frequently as a regrowth species in disturbed areas.

Brachynema ornans F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 3: 90(1862), Type: Ad ripas fluminis Richmond prope Ballina. C. Moore. Abrophyllum ornans var. microcarpum F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 24: 221(1910), Type: Dunk Island, E.J. Banfield. Abrophyllum ornans (F.Muell.) Benth. var. ornans, Queensland Agricultural Journal 24: 221(1910). Abrophyllum microcarpum (Bailey) Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 705(1928).