Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Mallotus claoxyloides (F.Muell.) Mull.Arg.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
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Leaves and male flowers. © Australian Plant Image Index (APII). Photographer: M. Fagg.
Leaves and female flowers. © Australian Plant Image Index (APII). Photographer: M. Fagg.
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Mueller Argoviensis, J. (1865) Linnaea 34: 192.

Common name

Smell-of-the-bush; Green Kamala; Odour Bush; Smell-of-the-bed

Stem

Can grow into a small tree but sometimes flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-3 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 5-13 x 3.5-7.5 cm. Stellate hairs present on both the upper and lower surfaces but more numerous on the lower surface. Petiole clothed in stellate hairs. Two or more flat glands present on the upper surface of the leaf blade near its junction with the petiole. Terminal buds and young shoots densely clothed in brown stellate hairs.

Flowers

Flowers about 4-6 mm diam. Outer surface of the tepals densely clothed in stellate hairs. Tepals reflexed, curled back on themselves at anthesis. Ovary densely stellate hairy and covered with trichomes. Stigmas fimbriate, clothed in woolly hairs.

Fruit

Capsules muricate, about 7 mm diam.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as north-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 300 m. Grows in vine thickets, monsoon forest and the drier types of rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea.

Synonyms
Echinus claoxyloides (F.Muell.) Baill. var. claoxyloides, Adansonia 6: 315(1866). Mallotus claoxyloides (F.Muell.) Mull.Arg. f. claoxyloides, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 888(1928). Mallotus claoxyloides (F.Muell.) Mull.Arg. var. claoxyloides, Flora Australiensis 6: 141(1873). Echinus claoxyloides var. genuina Baill., Adansonia 6: 315(1866). Mallotus chlaoxyloides F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 6: 184(1868). Echinus claoxyloides (F.Muell.) Baill., Adansonia 6: 315(1866). Echinocroton claoxyloides F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 1: 32(1858), Type: Queensland, Brisbane River, Hill & Mueller; holo: MEL. Echinus claoxyloides var. cordata Baill., Adansonia 6: 315(1866), Type: F. Mueller, Moreton Bay. Beckler, Richmond River; Clarence River Dallachy, n. 4. (1865), Rockhampton (salt water creeks) herb. F.Muell. Mallotus claoxyloides var. cordatus Airy Shaw, Muelleria 4(3): 232(1981), Type: Queensland, Rockingham Bay, Dallachy; holo: K. Mallotus claoxyloides var. glabratus Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 888(1928), Type: Queensland: Port Mackay, A. Dietrich 524; holo: PR. Fide Airy Shaw (1980).
RFK Code
3349
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