Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Antirhea ovatifolia (M.E.Jansen) Chaw


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
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Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Chaw, S.M. (1992) Tulane Studies Zoology Botany 28: 98. 

Stem

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

Leaves

Stipules triangular, pubescent, about 0.5-4 mm long. Leaf blades about 1.5-6.5 x 0.7-3.5 cm, petioles about 0.5-1 cm long. Lateral veins about 5 or 6 on each side of the midrib. Oil dots minute, scarcely visible with a lens. Domatia are tufts of hair. Petioles clothed in pale tortuous, +/- erect hairs.

Flowers

Peduncles long and slender, about 10-30 mm long, sometimes could be mistaken for pedicels. Calyx lobes dimorphic, two lobes oblong, about 0.3-0.8 mm long and two filiform or lanceolate, about 0.9-1.8 mm long. Corolla tube about 4-5 mm long, lobes orbicular, about 0.9-1.1 mm diam. Stamens about 1.5-2 mm long. Style about 2 mm long.

Fruit

Fruits globose, about 4-8 mm diam., calyx lobes persistent at the apex and bracts usually persistent at the base. Endocarp hard, longitudinally four or 5-ribbed. Testa longitudinally ribbed. Cotyledons about as wide as the radicle.

Seedlings

Cotyledons ovate, about 7.5-12 x 4-5 mm, stipulate. Cotyledonary stipules about 2 mm long. First pair of leaves opposite, hairy on both the upper and lower surfaces, stipulate, stipules about 2 mm long clothed in white hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade +/- ovate, hairy on both the upper and lower surfaces. Midrib raised on the upper surface of the leaf blade. Stipules about 4 mm long, hairy on the outer surface, interpetiolar, abruptly narrowed into a long acuminate point at the apex. Seed germination time 168 to 209 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Queensland. Occurs in CYP and the extreme northern section of NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 400 m. Grows as an understory plant in some of the drier types of rain forest, monsoon forest, beach forest and vine thickets.

Synonyms
Guettardella ovatifolia M.E.Jansen, Blumea 29: 582(1984), Type: Queensland, Newcastle Bay near Somerset, Brass 18667; holo: L.
RFK Code
3167
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