Ixora biflora Fosberg

Rubiaceae

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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;.