Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Myristica globosa subsp. muelleri (Warb.) W.J.de Wilde


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Male flower. © Barry Jago
Female flower. © Barry Jago
Fruit, side view, dehisced fruit showing red aril and seed. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Wilde, W.J.J.O. de (1994) Blumea 38(2): 367.

Common name

Nutmeg, Queensland; Queensland Nutmeg

Stem

Tree to 25 m tall. Branches often at right angles to trunk. Bark exudate watery red,

Leaves

Leaf blades variable in size, about 7-20 cm x 2-8 cm, petioles glabrous and about 6-15 mm long. Small oil dots visible with a lens. Young shoots and terminal buds clothed in prostrate, rusty brown hairs. Leaf blade paler or brownish on the underside. Petiole channelled on the upper surface. Lateral veins slightly depressed on the upper surface and usually forming loops inside the blade margin. Reticulate venation usually contrasting in colur from leaf surface and brown.

Flowers

Male flowers in fascicles or on woody tubercles; pedicel 3-4.5 mm long; calyx oblong or narrowly ellipsoidal in bud, 5-6 mm long, 2.2-2.5 mm wide, densely brown tomentose on outside, glabrescent; calyx lobes 1.2-2 mm long, erect or spreading; androphore pubescent at base. Female flowers in fascicles of up to 6: pedicel 0.6-1.5 mm long; calyx ovoid, 3.5-4.5 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, brown-tomentose outside; calyx lobes 1.2-1.7 mm long, spreading or recurved; ovary densely tomentose.

Fruit

Fruit ellipsoidal, 2-3 cm long, 1.5-2 cm wide, tomentose becoming puberulous; stalk 4-6 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide.

Seedlings

Not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1000 m. In mesophyll and notophyll vine forest.

Natural History & Notes

Often able to be distinguished by the contrasting colour of the tertiary reticulate venation.

Synonyms
Myristica muelleri Warb., Monographie der Myristicaceen : 502(1897), Type: Rockingham Bay, Qld, J.Dallachy; syn. Cooktown, Qld, O.Warburg 19500; syn. Rockingham Bay, Qld, Wilhelmi.
RFK Code
1176
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