Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Croton brachypus Airy Shaw


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Airy Shaw, H.K. (1981) Muelleria 4(3): 224. Type: Queensland, Tozer Range, 0.8 km east of Mt. Tozer, 6 July 1948, Brass 19462; holo: K.

Stem

Sometimes grows into a small tree but usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-4 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 7-17 x 4-7 cm, often arranged in tight spirals or pseudowhorls on sections of the twigs. Two cup-shaped glands present on the underside of the leaf blade at its junction with the petiole. Stellate scales present on young leaves, twigs and petioles. Stipules small and inconspicuous. Numerous oil dots visible with a lens.

Flowers

Male flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam. with a corolla, petals clothed in long woolly hairs particularly on the inner surface towards the base. Disk clothed in long woolly hairs. Female flowers produced near the base of the inflorescence. Female flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam. without a corolla, ovary densely clothed in stellate hairs or scales, seated on a disk of five fleshy glands. Styles three but each with two long stigmatic arms.

Fruit

Capsules with scattered stellate scales on the outer surface.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to CYP. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 500 m. Grows as an understory plant in various types of rain forest and monsoon forest.

Natural History & Notes

Very similar to Croton triacros and doubtfully distinct.

RFK Code
3071
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.