Miliusa brahei (F.Muell.) Jessup

Annonaceae

Jessup, L.W. (1984) Austrobaileya 2(3): 227.

Raspberry Jelly Tree

Dead bark layered. Blaze finely layered. Living bark strong and fibrous when stripped.

Leaf blades about 4-12 x 1.5-4 cm. Petioles short. Lateral veins curving but not forming definite loops. Oil dots visible with a lens. Buds and young shoots clothed in pale brown prostrate hairs. Oak grain in the twigs and twig bark. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped.

Sepals and outer petals similar, +/- linear-subulate, absent at anthesis. Inner petals 13-15 x 6-8 mm. Pedicels at flowering usually more than 15 mm long. Stamens about 36. Ovaries about 26.

Fruiting carpels ellipsoid or subglobular, 10-27 x 10-15 mm, stalks 5-15 mm long. Seeds about 7-9 x 5-7 mm, 2-6 per carpel, testa almost smooth. Embryo minute.

Cotyledons broadly ovate to elliptic, 15-17 x 10-15 mm, petiole very short. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves elliptic, upper surface with a few hairs along midrib; oil dots very small and difficult to see with a lens; petiole transversely ridged, hairy. Seed germination time 19 to 34 days.

Endemic to Australia (?), widespread in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 250 m. Grows in monsoon forest and drier rain forest.

Food plant for the larval stages of the Fourbar Swordtail, Green Spotted Triangle and the Green Triangle Butterflies. Sankowsky & Neilsen (2000).

Saccopetalum brahei F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 8: 159(1874), Type: In regionibus montanis juxta sinum maris Port Denison; Eug. Fitzalan.