Croton mutabilis P.I.Forst.

Forster, P.I. (2003) Austrobaileya 6: 399. Type: Queensland, Pussum Scrub, 12 deg. 27 142 deg. 09, 8 Dec. 1993, P.I. Forster 14376; Holo: BRI; Iso: DNA, L, MEL, MO, NSW.

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

Two +/- sessile, shallowly cup-shaped glands present on the underside of the leaf blade near its junction with the petiole. Young shoots, twigs and petioles sparsely clothed in stellate scales. Leaf blades about 6-14 x 3-8 cm. Numerous oil dots visible with a lens. Stipules inconspicuous, small and caducous. Twigs emit a spicy odour when broken. Lateral veins curving and forming loops well inside the blade margin.

Inflorescence clothed in stellate hairs. Calyx lobes of both male and female flowers with a tuft of hair near the apex. Male flowers: Flowers about 2 mm diam. with about ten stamens. Female flowers: Flowers with ovary clothed in stellate scales and stellate hairs. Styles three, each ending in two stigmas.

Outer surface of the capsules sparsely clothed in stellate scales. Tepals persistent at the base of the fruit. Cotyledons almost orbicular, much wider than the radicle.

Features not available.

Probably endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP. Altitudinal range from near sea level to about 100 m. Grows in or on the margins of rain forest and gallery forest.