Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Ixora biflora Fosberg


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Leaves and flower [not vouchered]. CC-BY J.L. Dowe
Fruit two views. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Fosberg, R. (1938) The Journal of Botany 76: 235. Type: Queensland, slopes of Mt. Demi, 6 Feb.1932, L.J. Brass 2050; holo: BRI; iso: A.

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-2 m tall.

Leaves

Stipules about 3-5 mm long, broad and connate at the base but tapering to a fine point at the apex. Leaf blades about 8-11 x 3-4.5 cm, petioles about 0.5-0.7 cm long and grooved on the upper surface. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin.

Flowers

Calyx 4-lobed. Corolla tube about 15 mm long, 4-lobed at the apex. Stamens 4, attached at the base of the corolla lobes. Filaments very short or absent. Anthers about 1 mm long. Style about 7 mm long, stigma 6-lobed.

Fruit

Fruits globose. Seeds about 4-6 per fruit. Testa intrudes into the endosperm on one side so that the endosperm appears U-shaped in transverse section.

Seedlings

Cotyledons +/- orbicular, about 11-20 x 13-22 mm. Petioles about 0.5-1 mm long. First pair of leaves with leaf blades about 16-27 x 6-11 mm, petioles about 2 mm long, grooved on the upper surface. Stipules interpetiolar, broad-based, about 3-6 mm long, apex filiform. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic to obovate, apex acuminate, base +/- attenuate; midrib raised on the upper surface. Oil dots more clearly visible from the lower surface of the leaf blade. Seed germination time 63 to 174 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 350 m. Grows as an understory plant in well developed lowland and upland rain forest, occasionally found in sclerophyll forest on the margin of rain forest.

Synonyms
Ixora biflora var. typica Fosberg, The Journal of Botany 76: 276(1938), Type: This is the typical form of the species as described on p. 235. Ixora biflora Fosberg var. biflora, The Journal of Botany 76: 276(1938). Ixora biflora var. fleckeri Fosberg, The Journal of Botany 76: 277(1938), Type: Queensland, Mossman Gorge, jungle at intake, 20 June 20 1937, Flecker 3521; holo: BRI;.
RFK Code
3510
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