Flindersia oppositifolia (F.Muell.) T.G.Hartley & Jessup

Rutaceae

Hartley, T.G. & Jessup, L.W. (1983) Brunonia 5(1): 109.

Mountain Top Silkwood; Silkwood, Mountain; Mountain Silkwood

Rusty brown lenticels usually obvious on the base of the stem where the lateral roots arise.

Scattered oil dots visible with a lens. Oil dots visible on the underside of the leaf or leaflet blade rather than on the upper surface. Leaf or leaflet blades about 3-8 x 1.4-3.2 cm, rather thick, cracking and breaking in a straight line when bent. Midrib raised on the upper surface.

Inflorescence hairs simple. Sepals about 1 mm long. Petals about 2-2.5 mm long. Ovules 2 on each side of the placenta.

Capsules about 5.5-11.5 cm long, outer surface muricate with relatively long excrescences. Seeds winged at both ends, radicle lateral.

Cotyledons much wider than long, about 8-10 x 35-50 mm. Oil dots small, visible with a lens, only about the margin. First pair of leaves trifoliolate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blades stalked, ovate, apex acuminate, base cuneate and slightly unequal-sided; oil dots absent. Seed germination time 8 to 9 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to Mt Bellenden Ker and Mt Bartle Frere. Altitudinal range from 1450-1550 m. Grows in well developed mountain rain forest and in short, stunted forest on windswept ridges.

Flindersia pimenteliana f. oppositifolia (F.Muell.) K.D.Scott, W.K.Harris & Playford, Austrobaileya 5: 668(2000). Hypsophila oppositifolia F.Muell., The Victorian Naturalist 9: 11(1893), Type: On Mount Bartle-Frere; Stephen Johnson. Flindersia unifoliolata T.G.Hartley, Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 50: 498(1969), Type: Queensland. COOK DISTRICT: Mt. Bellenden Ker, alt. 5200 ft., Sayer 136 (MEL holotype.).