Helicia lewisensis Foreman

Foreman, D.B. (1983) Brunonia 6(1): 66. Type: State Forest Reserve 143, North Mary Logging Area, Mt Lewis, Queensland, A.K. Irvine 1333, 15.iv.1974 (holotypus QRS).

A small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh. Oak grain in the wood and a corresponding pattern in the blaze.

Oak grain in the twigs. Leaf blades about 7.5-15.5 x 3-7 cm, arched between the lateral veins on the upper surface. Lateral veins forming distinct loops inside the blade margin. Young shoots and the terminal bud densely clothed in dark brown hairs.

Tepals about 10-15 mm long, sparsely ferruginous-pilose. Ovary glabrous. Ovules 2.

Fruits ovoid to globose, about 15 x 12 mm. Seed about 12-13 x 9 mm.

Cotyledons fleshy, obovate, without venation, about 11-13 x 7.5-9 mm, upper surface flat, lower surface convex, apex obtuse, base sagittate, margins with two slight lobes or blunt teeth on each side. First pair of leaves elliptic, margins irregularly serrate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, elliptic or narrowly elliptic, apex acute to acuminate, base attenuate, margin irregularly serrate with about 25 teeth on each side, hairy on the upper surface and along the midrib and lateral veins on the undersurface, hairs medifixed. Stems densely clothed in red brown, peltate to medifixed hairs. Seed germination time 24 to 26 days.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from Thornton Peak, the Windsor Tableland and Mt Lewis. Altitudinal range from 900-1200 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed mountain rain forest.