Franciscodendron laurifolium (F.Muell.) B.Hyland & Steenis

Malvaceae

Hyland, B.P.M. & Steenis, C.G.G.J. van (1987) Brunonia 10(1): 212.

Cabbage Crowsfoot; Tulip Kurrajong; Kurrajong, Tulip; White Crowsfoot; Tulip Sterculia

Fine oak grain in the wood. Outer blaze with white, granular stripes and darker, fibrous stripes. Bark very strong and fibrous when stripped.

Leaf blade generally quite large, about 13 x 6 cm. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Large pores visible with a lens or the naked eye in the pith of the twigs. Fine oak grain in the twigs. Domatia are small foveoles with a few hairs around the orifice.

Tepals about 10-12 x 2-3 mm, densely clothed with hairs on both the inner and outer surfaces. Anthers about 15 per flower, arranged in 5 indistinct groups and densely packed around the base of the carpels at the top of a hairy yellow column about 11-13 mm long. Carpels connate only by the styles.

Fruits flimsy, about 5-6 x 1.5-2 cm. Venation predominantly transverse in the fruiting carpels, veins arising from the adaxial (inner) margin. Seeds stellate hairy, narrowly ellipsoid, about 15 x 6-7 mm.

Cotyledons elliptic, 25-38 mm long. First 4-8 leaves peltate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, elliptic or obovate, apex acuminate, base rounded, glabrous; stipules elongate-triangular. Seed germination time 11 to 12 days.

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1150 m. Grows in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Sterculia laurifolia F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 6: 172(1868), Type: Ad sinum Rockinghams Bay; J. Dallachy.