Glochidion philippicum (Cav.) C.B.Rob.

Phyllanthaceae

Robinson, C.B. (1909) Philippine Journal of Science C. Botany 4 : 103.

Buttonwood; Daintree Cheese Tree; Philippine Buttonwood; Pin Flower Tree

Dead bark layered.

Leaf blades about 6-11 x 2-3.5 cm. Midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. Leaf bearing twigs clothed in tortuous hairs.

Male flowers: Inflorescence with or without a peduncle, sometimes supra-axillary. Flowers about 3 mm diam. without a disk. Flowers tomentellous. Female flowers: Flowers about 2 mm diam., pedicellate. Styles fused to form a hemispherical or button-shaped mass on the top of the ovary.

Capsules about 12-15-lobed, about 10-12 mm diam., resembling a miniature Queensland Blue pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo).

Cotyledons ovate, about 10-12 x 7 mm. First pair of leaves with stipules about 1.5 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves obovate, apex acute to acuminate, base cuneate to attenuate, usually a few hairs along the midrib on the upper surface, veins 7-10 each side of the midrib. Petioles hairy; stipules hairy, triangular, apex acuminate. Seed germination time 13 to 72 days.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Usually grows in well developed rain forest on the coastal lowlands subject to periodic disturbance but also found in gallery forest. Also occurs in Taiwan, Malesia and the Solomon Islands.

Food plant for the larval stages of the Blue Moonbeam Butterfly. Common & Waterhouse (1981).

Produces a useful general purpose timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.70. Cause et al. (1989).

Bradleia philippica Cav., Icones 3: 48(1797), Type: Philippines ?. Phyllanthus ferdinandii var. ? mollis Benth., Flora Australiensis 6: 97(1873), Type: Queensland, Rockingham Bay, J. Dallachy: holo: K?; Iso: MEL?. Glochidion ferdinandi var. mollis (Benth.) F.M.Bailey, The Queensland Flora 5: 1424(1902).