Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Gossia lucida (Banks ex Gaertn.) N.Snow & Guymer


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and fruit [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Snow, N. & Guymer, G.P. (2003) Systematic Botany Monographs 65: 70.

Common name

Lignum

Stem

A small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh. Bark smooth, reddish brown. Outer blaze +/- green.

Leaves

Oil dots pale brown, numerous and closely spaced. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Leaf blades about 5.5-8 x 3-4.5 cm.

Flowers

Inflorescence usually a 3-flowered cyme or umbel on a very short (1-1.5 mm long) peduncle. Flowers about 14-16 mm diam. Hypanthium about 2 mm long, apex usually reddish. Calyx lobes pubescent adaxially, about 1.8 mm long. Petals about 6-6.5 mm long, glabrous except for the margins, oil dots green-yellow, about 30-40 per petals, visible only from the lower side. Stamens about 70. Innermost filaments only about 3-5 mm long, other filaments longer. Anthers with a single orange coloured gland at the apex. Ovules 6 or 7 per locule. Style about 5 mm long, often bent or twisted near the apex.

Fruit

Fruits depressed globular, about 9 mm diam., calyx lobes persistent at the apex. Testa membranous. Embryo coiled with the cotyledons +/- in the middle of the spiral. Cotyledons much more slender than the radicle.

Seedlings

Cotyledons very small, narrowly elliptic to linear, about 3-5 x 1 mm; oil dots very small, just visible with a lens, more numerous about the margin. Stipules very small. Stem below cotyledons (hypocotyl) thickened. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade +/- ovate, apex and base obtuse; oil dots visible with a lens, shortly petiolate, glabrous. Stipules small and inconspicuous. Seed germination time 13 to 38 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 150 m. Grows as an understory tree in gallery forest.

Synonyms
Austromyrtus sp. (Annan River BH 25539RFK), : (). Myrtus nitida J.F. Gmelin, Syst. veg. 2: 792(1791). Austromyrtus lucida (Banks ex Gaertner) L.S. Smith, Proceedings Royal Society Queensland 67: 35(1956). Syzygium lucidum Banks ex Gaertner, De fructibus et seminibus plantarum 1: 167(1788), Type: Australia, New Holland, 1770, Banks & Solander s.n.; Holo: K. Myrtus monosperma F. Mueller, Victorian Naturalist 9: 9(1892), Type: Qld, Endeavour River, W.A. Persieh s.n.; Holo: MEL; Iso: BM, BRI, MEL.
RFK Code
983
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