Flindersia australis R.Br.

Brown, R. in Flinders, M. (1814), General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis. A Voyage to Terra Australis 2, Appendix III: 595, t. 1. Type: "observed September 1802, .. near head of Broad Sound, on the East coast of New Holland, in about 23°S lat."

Teak, Crow's Ash

Tree to 25 m high. Young stems densely hairy with simple, clustered or stellate hairs, older stems becoming hairless. Bark brown, scaly, shed in oval flakes leaving depressions, which gives the trunk a spotted appearance.

Leaves alternate to opposite, compound. Stipules absent. Petioles to 10-15 cm long. Leaves imparipinnate (with terminal leaflet), with 3-13 leaflets per leaf, lateral leaflets opposite. Lateral petiolules sessile to 3 mm long, terminal petiolule sessile to 30 mm long. Leaflet blades ovate to elliptic or obovate, sometimes narrowly so, (2.4-) 3-12 (-15) cm long, (0.8-) 1.5-4.5 cm wide, base cuneate, rounded, or oblique (asymmetric), margins ± entire, leaf apex acuminate, acute or rounded. Both leaf surfaces hairless or densely pubescent with predominantly stellate hairs below and short sparsely hairy on midrib above. Lateral veins about 16-20 pairs. Oil dots visible to naked eye. Compound leaf axis somewhat flattened, margins angular or shortly winged towards the base.

Inflorescences terminal, paniculate. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, white to cream, sometimes with a few male flowers. Sepals 5, ovate-triangular, 2.2-2.5 mm long, pubescent outside, free or connate at base only. Petals 5, elliptic-oblong, 5-7 mm long, appressed hairy on outer surface except for margins, inner surface with a few papillose hairs in throat. Stamens 5, filaments curved inwards from upper third; carpels 5, fused and clothed in simple hairs.

Fruit a dry woody capsule, ellipsoid, 4.6-10 cm long. Capsule dehiscent into 5 valves which adhere at base and do not disintegrate following dehiscence. Capsule brown with numerous projections on outer surface. Seeds 2-6 per valve, 3.4-5 cm long, winged at apical end.

Cotyledons obdeltoid to reniform, much wider than long, about 10-13 x 17-22 mm. Oil dots visible with a lens. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blades ovate, lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, terminal leaflet attenuate at the base, lateral leaflets ± sessile, midrib raised on the upper surface; oil dots numerous, visible to the naked eye; petiole and rhachis of compound leaf winged.

Occurs in CEQ, from Mt Dryander near Airlie Beach, west to Carnarvon National Park and southwards to Kempsey in New South Wales. Found in rainforest (subtropical and dry rainforest) near sea level to 860 m altitude.

This profile information and associated coding has been adapted from Cooper & Cooper (2004), Harden et al. (2014), and Hartley (1969; 2013).