Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Bubbia whiteana A.C.Sm.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flower. CC-BY Australian Tropical Herbarium
Flowers. CC-BY Australian Tropical Herbarium
Leaves and flowers. CC-BY Australian Tropical Herbarium
Flowers and immature fruit. © T. Hawkes
Fruit. © T. Hawkes
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Smith, A.C. (1943) Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 24: 145. Type: Queensland, Daintree River region, 14 Mar. 1932, Brass 2278; holo: A.

Stem

Usually grows into a small tree but also flowers and fruits as a shrub.

Leaves

Leaves crowded at the ends of the twigs and branches. Leaf blades about 4-12 x 1.3-3.5 cm, almost white on the underside, base attenuate, margins strongly recurved. Oil dots visible with a lens. Leaves somewhat aromatic (?) when crushed. Lateral veins difficult to discern.

Flowers

Inflorescences 1.2-2.5 cm long, 1-2-flowered; pedicels 8-18 mm long; calyx 2-3 lobed. Petals 6 or 7, ovate, 6-6.5 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm  wide. Stamens 14-19. Carpels 1-4; ovules 7-10.

Fruit

Fruit globular or ovoid, 8-12 mm long, black when ripe. Seeds 3-6, oblong-ovoid, slightly falcate, 4.5-5 mm long.

Seedlings

Cotyledons orbicular, about 7 mm diam., underside white. Hypocotyl longitudinally striated. First pair of leaves obovate, underside white. Midrib depressed on the upper surface of the leaf blade. Petioles reddish. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, margins strongly recurved, Leaf blade almost white on the underside. Petioles about 1-2 mm long. Lateral veins difficult to discern. Seed germination time 398 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, known only from the Thornton Peak and Mt Pieter Botte areas. Altitudinal range from 800-1500 m. Grows as an understory plant in mountain rain forest.

Synonyms
Zygogynum semecarpoides var. whiteanum Vink, Blumea 31: 54(1986). Bubbia semecarpoides var. whiteana Vink, Blumea 28: 325(1983).
RFK Code
3391
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