Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Mesua sp. Boonjee (A.K.Irvine 1218)


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
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Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
1st leaf stage, cotyledons absent. © CSIRO
Family

Provisional HISPID phrase name.

Stem

Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh. Exudate meagre, sticky.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 6-10 x 2-3 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens, usually one oil dot per reticulation. Midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. Petiole channelled on the upper surface.

Flowers

Inflorescences shorter than the leaves. Staminal filaments 3-5.5 mm long, anthers 0.4-0.7 mm long, anther thecae C-shaped. Anther connective terminating in a gland.

Fruit

Fruits +/- obovoid, enclosed in the persistent sepals, fruits +/- sepals about 25-35 x 25-35 mm.

Seedlings

Three pairs of cataphylls usually produced before the first true leaves. First pair of leaves narrowly elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate. Midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. Usually one oil dot per reticulation in the leaf blades. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves lanceolate with a short mucro at the apex; oil dots visible with a lens, usually one per reticulation. Midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. Seedling entirely glabrous. Taproot somewhat swollen. Seed germination time 99 to 149 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to a small area on the south-eastern rim of the Atherton Tableland in the Boonjee area and another small area north of the Daintree River near Noah Creek. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Grows in well developed rain forest on, or on the edge of, basalt.

RFK Code
745
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