Alyxia oblongata Domin

Apocynaceae

Domin, K. (1928) Biblioth. Bot. 89: 523. Type: Queensland, Waterfall Creek, Domin 7831; Holo: PR.

Chain Fruit; Prickly Alyxia; Prickly Lixy; Alyxia, Prickly

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-3 m tall.

Leaves and twigs produce a milky exudate when broken. Usually four leaves per whorl. Leaf blades about 2.5-3.5 x 0.8-1.1 cm, petioles about 0.1-0.5 cm long. Lateral veins about 10-20 on each side of the midrib, but very difficult to distinguish on fresh leaves. Leaves scabrous on the upper surface, smooth on the lower, margins minutely toothed, tips pungent pointed.

Flowers about 9-17 mm diam. Sepals about 1.2-2 x 0.5-0.7 mm. Corolla tube about 9-11 mm long, glabrous on the outer surface, but pubescent around the anthers on the inner surface, lobes lanceolate, about 4.5-7.5 mm long. Anthers about 1.1-1.5 x 0.4-0.5 mm.

Fruits sometimes moniliform. Seeds about 8-10 mm long. Embryo with cotyledons about as wide as the radicle.

First leaves sessile, arranged in a whorl of three or five. Margins serrate, apex aristate or spiny. Leaves and stems produce a milky exudate when cut or broken. Lateral veins scarcely branched. Stem and hypocotyl hairy. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves in whorls of four or five. Leaf blades tapering to a fine spine-like point at the apex. Margins finely toothed or clothed in short spiny hairs. Seed germination time 114 to 352 days.

Endemic to NEQ, found between the Big Tableland (Rossville) and the southern Atherton Tableland. Altitudinal range from 100-1000 m. Often grows in the drier rain forests on granite usually associated with Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta).

Alyxia ruscifolia subsp. major P.I.Forst., Australian Systematic Botany 5(5): 557(1992), Type: Queensland, Big Tableland road 15 43 S, 145 16 E, 4.Jul. 1989, P.I.Forster 5574 & M.C.Tucker; holo: BRI; iso: BISH, DNA, LAE, MO.