Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Asystasia australasica F.M.Bailey


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
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Flower [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Leaves and flower [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Leaves and flower [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Leaves and inflorescences [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Fruit [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Family

Bailey, F.M. (1897) Queensland Agricultural Journal 1(3): 230. Type: F.M.Bailey s.n., vi. 1897, Thursday Island. Holo: BRI; Iso: K. "Thursday Island, Torres Strait. Under trees in the gullies between the hills."

Stem

Erect to spreading, much branched herb to 50 cm tall. Stems square, constricted above nodes.

Leaves

Leaves opposite; petioles 3-28 mm long, shorter higher up; blades thin, ovate, to 35-116 x 11-50 mm, base attentuate, apex acuminate, margins entire.

Flowers

Inflorescence racemes 2-4 cm long, terminal or rarely axillary. Bracts triangular, 1.2 mm long, bracteoles slightly smaller. Pedicel 1-2 mm long, glabrous. Calyx 5 lobes, narrow triangular, 4-6 mm long, mostly glabrous or with a tuft of hairs at apex. Corolla blue, purple or lavender, outer surface with dense cover of glandular and eglandular hairs, inside tube with sparse hairs otherwise glabrous, tube and throat 15-17 mm long, lobes 5 and more or less equal. Stamens 4, in two unequal pairs, longer of each pair just eserted. Ovary glabrous in flower or with a few glandular and eglandular hairs towards apex, becoming more densely glandular hairy with age; style 10-18 mm long, glabrous.

Fruit

Capsule 15-21 mm long, moderately densely glandular hairy on outside. Two seed bearing hooks in each valve, often with only one seed., Seed ca. 3.5 mm diameter, tuberculate, flattened on sides.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP on the islands of the Torres Strait, and recorded in NEQ from near the Annan River south of Cooktown and in Cape Melville National Park. Grows in margin of evergreen and deciduous vine thickets, and recorded from sandy flats and grassy areas behind beach and mangroves.

RFK Code
4318
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