Gossia myrsinocarpa (F.Muell.) N.Snow & Guymer

Myrtaceae

Snow, N. & Guymer, G.P. (2003) Systematic Botany Monographs 65: 73.

Malanda Ironwood; Small-flowered Lignum

Pale granular stripes in the outer blaze.

Oil dots very numerous, visible with a lens if not visible to the naked eye. Intramarginal vein imparting a 3-veined appearance to the base of the leaf blade. Leaf blades about 4.5-7 x 1.5-3.2 cm.

Flowers strongly perfumed but the odour is not necessarily pleasant. Petals and calyx lobes +/- glabrous adaxially, margins +/- fimbriate. Petals about 2-3 mm long, about 100 oil dots per petal.

Fruits globular, about 7-10 mm diam., calyx lobes persistent at the apex. Testa relatively thick, hard and horny. Embryo coiled with the cotyledons +/- in the middle of the spiral. Cotyledons reflexed and separated from one another, each cotyledon much more slender than the radicle.

Cotyledons narrowly elliptic or ovate, about 14-16 x 3-5 mm; intramarginal vein present, oil dots clearly visible with a lens. Stipules filiform, about 1.5 mm long. Stem below cotyledons (hypocotyl) thickened. First pair of leaves produced just above the cotyledons so that the cotyledons and the first pair of leaves form a whorl of quite similar leaf blades. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, about 20-25 x 8-12 mm, petioles about 1-2 mm long. Seed germination time 4 to 34 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1000 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites but is probably more frequently found in drier, more seasonal rain forest.

Eugenia myrsinocarpa F. Mueller, Victorian Naturalist 8: 200(1892), Type: Queensland, Trinity Bay, Fitzalan s.n.: Holo: MEL. Austromyrtus minutiflora Burret, Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 15(3): 502(1941), Type: Australien: Rockingham Bay; Holo: B (destroyed); Iso: MEL.