Levieria acuminata (F.Muell.) J.R.Perkins

Monimiaceae

Perkins, J.R. (1898) Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 25: 570.

Straw Beech; Beech, Straw

Fine oak grain in the wood and a similar pattern in the inner blaze. Blaze darkening on exposure to reddish-brown.

Fine oak grain in the twigs. Leaf blades about 6.5-10 x 2.5-4 cm. Teeth normally present on some leaves, small and prickle-like, sometimes slightly curved and look as though attached to the leaf margin as an afterthought.

Flowers about 4-6 mm diam. Male flowers: Flowers with a small, flat receptacle bearing relatively large rotund tepals. Connective projecting beyond the anthers to form a broad appendage. Female flowers: Receptacle hairy, splitting irregularly from the outside following anthesis, carpels about 20.

Receptacle yellow, fleshy and pubescent. Fruiting carpels about 6-8 x 4.5-6 mm.

Cotyledons elliptic to broadly ovate, about 10-15 mm long, apex mucronate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic to obovate, apex acuminate, base cuneate, margin dentate along the upper 2/3 of the leaf blade, teeth with a fine apical point; hairy on the upper surface of the leaf blade, lateral veins about 3-5 each side of the midrib; petiole, terminal bud and stem densely clothed in long pale hairs. Seed germination time 113 to 636 days.

Occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range from 30-1150 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed, mostly, upland and mountain rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea.

Fruit is eaten by fruit pigeons. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

Mollinedia acuminata F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 155(1866), Type: Sea View Range, 9 Nov. 1864, J. Dallachy; Lecto: MEL 2052268, fide Whiffin & Foreman (2007).