Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Dysoxylum pumilum Mabb.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Fruit dehisced. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Mabberley D.J. (2004) Telopea 10: 727. Type: Queensland, SFR 755 Bartle Frere, Gosschalk L.A., 18 May 1976, B. Hyland 8792. Holo QRS; Iso NSW.

Stem

Flowers and fruits as a shrub or small tree about 5-6 m tall.

Leaves

Compound leaf rhachis +/- convex on the upper surface and projecting beyond the point of attachment of the terminal pair of leaflets. Leaflets about 3-6 in each compound leaf, leaflet blades variable in size, often quite large, up to 15-20 x 7-9 cm. Many streaky or comet-shaped oil dots visible with a lens. Lateral veins about 9-15 on each side of the midrib. Terminal buds clothed in short, fine +/- prostrate pale coloured hairs.

Flowers

Calyx short, lobes about 4 mm long, fused to form a shallow cup, lobes +/- obtuse. Outer surface of the corolla clothed in pale, prostrate hairs. Corolla about 7 mm long. Stamens eight, filaments fused to form a tube which surrounds the short cup-shaped disk which in turn surrounds the ovary. Anthers about 1 mm long, attached to the inner surface of the staminal tube. Ovary pubescent. Style about 5-6 mm long, pubescent towards the base.

Fruit

Fruits +/- depressed, globular, about 40 x 60 mm, outer surface glabrous. Fruits green at maturity when splitting to release the seeds. Seeds almost completely enclosed in an orange-brown sarcotesta at maturity. Cotyledons dark green.

Seedlings

First leaf glabrous, +/- ovate, about 9-10 x 4-5 cm, with a pulvinus at the petiole-leaf blade junction. At the tenth leaf stage: compound leaf ending in a leafless tip or scar, leaflet blades and petiole +/- glabrous, leaflets very shortly stalked, oil dots readily visible with a lens and almost visible to the naked eye. Terminal bud clothed in short pale +/- prostrate hairs. Seed germination time 27 to 63 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, known from a small area near the base of Mt Bartle Frere on the Russell River catchment (Gosschalk Logging Area), and from a small area near the Mossman River in Daintree National Park. Altitudinal range probably quite small, from 200-400 m. Grows in well developed undisturbed lowland rain forest.

Synonyms
Dysoxylum sp. Gosschalk LA (BG 786) [Provisional Phrase Name]
RFK Code
1098
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