Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Dodonaea lanceolata F.Muell. var. lanceolata


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Male flowers [not vouchered]. CC-BY J.L. Dowe
Leaves and fruit. © Australian Plant Image Index (APII). Photographer: M. Fagg.
© CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

West, J.G. (1984) Brunonia 7(1): 49. Type: Northern Territory, Victoria River, Dec. 1855, F. Mueller; lecto: MEL. Fide J. G. West, Brunonia 7: 48 (1984). Iso: K.

Common name

Hopbush

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-3 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blades glabrous, about 5-8.5 x 1.5-2 cm, petioles about 0.7-1 cm long, grooved on the upper surface. Lateral veins often difficult to see, about 9 or 10 on each side of the midrib forming loops inside the blade margin.

Flowers

Pedicels about 6-7 mm long. Tepals about 2-3.5 x 1 mm. Stamens 8-10, anthers about 2-3 mm long, filaments about 0.1-0.2 mm long. Ovary glabrous. Style about 8-9 mm long. Stigma shortly 3-lobed.

Fruit

Capsules 3-lobed, glabrous, capsule + wings about 13-17 x 12-15 mm, pedicels about 6-7 mm long, perianth persistent, attached to the base of the fruit. Wings about 3 mm wide attached to each fruit lobe. Seeds ellipsoid, laterally flattened, about 1-2 x 1 mm. Cotyledons coiled, about 3 mm long. Radicle about 2 mm long, +/- tangential to the cotyledons.

Seedlings

Cotyledons linear. First pair of leaves with lobed margins at least towards the apex. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex acute, base cuneate to attenuate. Seed germination time 24 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in WA, NT and NEQ (the Gulf of Carpentaria region of Queensland) and also extends into central Australia. Altitudinal range not known. Usually grows in open forest and woodland but sometimes found in vine thickets and perhaps monsoon forest.

Natural History & Notes

Food plant for the larval stages of the Fiery Jewel Butterfly. Common & Waterhouse (1981).

This plant used medicinally by Aborigines, used for snakebite; decoction drunk or bathed in for body pains. Cribb (1981).

RFK Code
3219
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