Diospyros rheophila Jessup

Jessup, L.W. (2014) Austrobaileya 9(2): 183-184. Type: Queensland. Cook District: Timber Reserve 175, Baird Logging Area, 22 September 1980, B.Hyland 10623 (holo: BRI).

Grows into  a small tree 5 m tall, often poorly formed because of flood damage, but also flowers and fruits as a shrub.

Young leaves and shoots clothed in pale medifixed hairs. Leaf blades hard and leathery, about 4.3-8.5 x 1-1.7 cm, petioles about 0.2-0.4 cm long. Glands 2-6 on basal quarter of lamina below. Lateral veins about 5-10 pairs, but very irregular and forming only inconspicuous loops inside the blade margin.

Male flowers: Inflorescence a compressed raceme. Flowers about 4 mm diam. Sepals about 4 mm long. Corolla tube about 5 mm long, lobes about 4 mm long. Stamens 9, anthers about 2 mm long, filaments about 2 mm long. Pollen white.  Female flowers solitary; calyx 3.5-4 mm long, tube 1.5-2 mm long, lobes 3, 1.5-2 mm long; corolla tube 2-3 mm long, lobes 3, lobes 2-2.5 mm long; staminodes absent; ovary 3 locular, ovules 2 per locule; stigmas bifid.

Calyx 4-lobed, persistent at the base of the fruit.

Features not available.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from collections made on Roaring Meg Creek. Altitudinal range not certain, collected at altitudes between 250-350 m. Grows as a rheophyte among rocks and boulders on creeks flowing through open forest and rain forest.

Diospyros sp. Baird LA (B.P.Hyland 9374)  [Provisional Phrase Name].