Brackenridgea australiana F.Muell.

Ochnaceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1865) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 29. Type: In silvis ad sinum Rockinghams Bay, ubi cuidam Aleuritidi consociata. Dallachy.

Native Ochna; Brown Ochna

Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh, often scratched by possums.

Leaf blades about 6-17 x 1.5-5 cm. The larger lateral veins forming loops with much of the total length parallel to the margin of the leaf blade while the smaller lateral veins run from the midrib to the larger lateral veins.

Sepals about 5-6 x 3-4 mm. Petals about 4.5-5 x 2.5-3 mm. Stamens ten. Carpels attached to a swollen hemispherical receptacle with the style emerging from the centre.

Fruit consists of a swollen receptacle with (up to 5) discrete globular black carpels each about 5 mm diam. and a persistent red calyx.

Cotyledons linear with an indistinct intramarginal vein. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves narrowly elliptic with numerous fine, almost ciliate, teeth; stipules toothed and sometimes deeply divided, appearing double. Seed germination time 71 days.

Endemic to NEQ, widespread throughout the area. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1200 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Brackenridgea nitida subsp. australiana (F.Muell.) Kanis, Blumea 16: 50(1969). Gomphia australiana F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 29(1865). Brackenridgea nitida A.Gray, Characters of some new Genera of plants mostly from Polynesia .. : 5(1853), Type: Feejee Islands. Campylopora australiana (F.Muell.) Tiegh., Bulletin du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 8 : 547(1902).