Dysoxylum oppositifolium F.Muell.

Meliaceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1865) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 177.

Mahogany, Pink; Pink Mahogany

Narrow orange-yellow brittle stripes in the blaze. Lenticels often quite large, 10 mm diam. Bark often coarsely flaky.

Midrib raised on the upper surface of the leaflet blade. Leaflet blades about 8-17 x 3.5-5.5 cm. Compound leaf petiole rather sharply angular from the base to the point of attachment of the first pair of leaflets. Domatia (if present) are tufts of hairs around a glandular depression. Terminal buds shaped like a lance head.

Calyx cup-shaped, lobes very small and inconspicuous. Outer surface of the corolla clothed in pale, +/- prostrate hairs. Petals about 7 mm long. Stamens eight. Disk surrounds the ovary and resembles a staminal tube. Ovary pubescent.

Fruits +/- globular, often 4-lobed in transverse section, about 20-30 mm long, outer surface glabrous, or sparsely tomentellous. Sarcotesta orange or yellow except for a brown or black patch. Cotyledons cream but brown on the periphery.

First pair of leaves compound with two leaflets. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blades elliptic, apex acuminate, glabrous on the upper surface; petiole and rhachis of compound leaf clothed in short, erect hairs. Seed germination time 9 to 20 days.

Occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1100 m. Grows in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites but tends to be more abundant in drier, more seasonal rain forest. Also occurs in Malesia and the Solomon Islands.

Produces a useful general purpose timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.88. Cause et al. (1989).

Alliaria oppositifolia (F.Muell.) Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 1: 109(1891). Alliaria schulzii (C.DC.) Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 1: 109(1891). Dysoxylum schulzii C.DC., Monographiae Phanerogamarum 1 : 502(1878), Type: In Port Darwin (Schulz, n. 573 in herb. Kew et Berol.). Dysoxylum acutangulum Miq., Flora Indiae Batavae Suppl. : 503(1861), Type: Sumatra.