Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Daphnandra repandula (F.Muell.) F.Muell.


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flower. © Barry Jago
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Fruiting receptacle and plumed fruit. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1882) Systematic Census of Australian Plants : 3.

Common name

Sassafras, Northern; Yellow Sassafras; Grey Sassafras; Sassafras, Scentless; Sassafras, Grey; Sassafras; Sassafras; Northern Yellow Sassafras; Northern Sassafras; Scentless Sassafras

Stem

Blaze bright yellow.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 7-20 x 2.5-4.8 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. About 15-30 teeth present on each side of the leaf blade. Twigs on coppice shoots conspicuously flattened at the point of attachment of pairs of leaves.

Flowers

Flowers about 6-8 mm diam. when fully open. Two glands at the base of each anther on the outer surface. Anthers flat or obtuse at the apex.

Fruit

Fruiting receptacle +/- lageniform, splitting to release what appear to be plumed seeds (actually plumed fruits). Plumes about 10-15 mm long overall, individual hairs also produced from the fruiting carpel itself.

Seedlings

Cotyledons about 9-14 x 4-7 mm with an intramarginal vein. First pair of leaves with a very apiculate tip. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, margin with about 7-9 teeth on each side, the tips of the teeth apiculate, thickened, midrib depressed on the upper surface. Hairs only on new sections of stem and petioles of new leaves. Stem with round pale gland-like structures. Terminal bud and stem with appressed hairs. Seed germination time 28 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs NEQ and CEQ, widespread in NEQ. Altitudinal range from 300-1300 m. Grows in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Natural History & Notes

Food plant for the larval stages of the Macleay's Swallowtail Butterfly. Common & Waterhouse (1981).

Seldom grows large enough to produce millable logs.

Produces a useful general purpose timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.67. Cause et al. (1989).

Synonyms
Atherosperma repandulum F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 10: 105(1877), Type: Qld, Dalrymple Gap, Rockingham Bay, 10 May 1868, J. Dallachy; Lecto: MEL 3181. Fide R. Schodde (2007). Daphnandra dielsii Perkins, Das Pflanzenreich Heft 49 49: 46(1911), Type: Qld, Ober- Barron, May 1902, L. Diels 8401; Holo: B (destroyed); Wongabel FR, 7 Aug. 1963, R. Schodde 3258; Neo: CANB; Iso: A, AD, B, BRI, G, L.
RFK Code
176
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