Meiogyne cylindrocarpa (Burck) Heusden

Annonaceae

Heusden, E.C.H. van (1994) Blumea 38(2): 499.

A small tree less than 30 cm dbh. Blaze finely layered with fibrous stripes in the outer blaze.

Leaf blades about 3.5-5.5 x 1.5-2.5 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Oak grain in the twigs. Buds and young shoots clothed in cream or pale brown hairs.

Inflorescence 1-4 flowered, appear terminal or axillary, solitary. Flowers 12-13 mm across. Bracts 3-5, about 0.7-2 x 0.8-1.4 mm. Pedicels about 4-7 mm long, pubescent. Sepals depressed ovate to ovate, about 1-3 x 1-3.5 mm, pubescent outside, glabrous inside. Petals slightly imbricate or valvate (?) at the apex, spreading, narrowly to broadly (triangular-)ovate to elliptic. Outer 3 petals about 5-22 x 3-8 mm wide. Inner 3 petals about 5-16 x 3-6.5 mm, pubescent on both sides. Stamens ca. 28, about 1.2-2 mm long, apex shield-like, elongated in the inner whorl. Ovaries 2-14, densely hairy. Ovules 6 or 7 per ovary. Stigma globose to discoid or to oblong-obovoid, fleshy, sparsely hairy or glabrous.

Fruits about 12-33 x 10-16 mm on stalks about 2-5 mm long. Seeds about 7-9 x 4-6 mm, 1-3 per fruiting carpel. Embryo minute.

First pair of leaves shortly petiolate, alternate, ovate, margins smooth, mainly glabrous. Small oil dots visible with a lens. Stem clothed in cream or pale brown hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves ovate or lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate, base obtuse or cuneate; petioles short, pubescent. Seed germination time 115 to 199 days.

A widespread but inconspicuous species in WA, NT and CYP. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 300 m. Grows in the drier types of rain forest and in monsoon forest. Also occurs in Malesia.

Meiogyne cylindrocarpa (Burck) Heusden subsp. cylindrocarpa, Jessup, L.W. in Flora of Australia 2: 53 (2007). Polyaulax cylindrocarpa (Burck) Backer, Blumea 5 5: 493 (1942). Mitrephora cylindrocarpa Burck, Nova Guinea 8: 433 (1911), Type: New Guinea, near Okaba, 27 Sept. 1907, Branderhorst 107; holo: U; iso: A, B, K, L.