Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Diospyros rugosula R.Br.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Leaves and fruit. CC-BY A. Ford
Fruit. © R.L. Barrett
A. male flower; B. dissected male corolla showing stamens; C. dissected female corolla showing staminodes; D. female flower; E. dissected male hypanthium showing pistillode; F. dissected ovary; G. fruit. © Queensland Government
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Brown, R. (1810), Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae: 526. Type: Carpentaria, Groote Eylandt, 15 January 1803, R. Brown iter Austral. 2827.

Common name

Ebony

Stem

Deciduous shrub or tree to 7 m tall.

Leaves

Twigs and petioles clothed in short erect brown hairs at least when young. Leaf petiole 2-6.5 mm long. Leaf blades about 2-9(-14) x 2-4(-5.5) cm. Glands sparse, usually four to six flat glands present on the lower surface of the leaf blade on either side of the midrib. Lateral veins 4-5 pairs, forming loops inside the blade margin.

Flowers

Male inflorescence axes to 1 cm long; mostly 2 or 3 flowered; calyx tube 1-1.5 mm long, lobes 4 ca. 2 mm long; corolla contorted, tube 2-2.5 mm long, lobes 4 ca. 5-6 m long. Stamens 14-16, filaments adnate to corolla tube in pairs; pistillode globular, less than 1 mm. Female flowers solitary, peduncle 3.5-5 mm long, with 2 foliaceous bracts; calyx tube 2-2.5 mm long, lobes 4 ca. 5.5-7 mm long; corolla contorted, tube 2.5-3 mm long, lobes 4, ca. 4.2-4.8 mm long; staminodes 4; styles 4, fused at base.

Fruit

Fruits globular, about 17-25 mm diam, glabrous. Calyx lobes recurved, persistent at the base of the fruit. Seeds 2-8, about 15 mm long, embryo about 7 mm long. Cotyledons as long as but wider than the radicle.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in WA and NT. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 250 m. Grows in monsoon forest and vine thickets. Probably also occurs in Indonesia and Timor.

Synonyms

Diospyros cordifolia Roxb., Plants of the Coast of Coromandel 1 : 38 (1796). Type: .. among the mountains in the Circars. [Misapplied name in Australia].

RFK Code
3056
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