Melhania brachycarpa Blume

Domin, K. (1930) Bibliotheca Botanica 22(89): 972. Type: Chillagoe, Queensland.

Usually flowers and fruits as a herb but occasionally grows into a shrub 1 m tall.

Leaf blades about 4-5 x 1.5-2 cm. Twigs, petioles and both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in simple and stellate hairs. Stipules filiform, about 3-11 mm long, hairy. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped.

Pedicels about 5-10 mm long. Epicalyx of 3-5 lobes, about 10-12 x 2 mm, clothed in stellate hairs. Sepals about 14-17 mm long, stellate hairy on the outer surface, inner surface glabrous. Petals glabrous, withering and remaining around the ovary following anthesis. Stamens five, alternating with five larger petaloid staminodes. Pollen yellow. Ovary densely clothed in long stellate or branched hairs.

Capsules about 7-9 mm long, densely stellate hairy on the outer surface. Calyx and epicalyx persistent at the base. Seeds about 1.5 x 1 mm. Testa tuberculate. Cotyledons folded.

Features not available.

Probably endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range in northern Australia from 300 to 660 m. Grows as an understory plant in vine thickets and monsoon forest.