Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Leucopogon ruscifolius R.Br.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
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Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Brown, R. (1810) Prod. : 545. Type: Queensland, Endeavour River, Banks & Solander; holo: BM?.

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-4 m tall but also flowers when smaller.

Leaves

Leaf blades erect or spreading, sessile, about 5-13 x 3-5 mm, margins finely hairy. Venation complicated, 3-5 veins longitudinal and located in the middle of the leaf with lateral veins arising from them and curving out towards the margin. Apex pungent pointed.

Flowers

Base of the sepals enclosed in 3 or 4 overlapping bracts. Corolla urn-shaped, lobes recurved, inner (adaxial) surface clothed in bristle-like hairs. Corolla tube glabrous on the inner surface. Disk petaloid, tightly enclosing the ovary.

Fruit

Fruits about 3.5-4 mm diam., calyx lobes persistent at the base. Style remnants persistent at the apex. Endocarp about 2.5 mm long with longitudinal ribs or striations.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 700 m. Usually grows in windswept low closed vegetation on sand dunes close to the sea but sometimes found in other situations e.g. open forest in mountainous areas. May also occur in New Guinea.

RFK Code
3202
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