Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Planchonella chartacea (F.Muell. ex Benth.) H.J.Lam


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers. © G. Sankowsky
Flowers. © Barry Jago
Fruit, side views and seeds. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Lam, H.J. (1925) Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg Series 3 7: 217.

Common name

Plum, Thin Leaved; Thin Leaved Plum; Thin Leaved Coondoo; Planchonella; Dugulla

Stem

Bark exudate meagre. Narrow yellowish vertical stripes visible in the blaze.

Leaves

Midrib raised on the upper surface. Petioles produce a milky exudate. Leaf blades about 5.5-18 x 1.6-5.5 cm.

Flowers

Sepals ovate, 3.5-4.5 x 2.5-3.2 mm, sericeous near the apex on the inner and outer surfaces. Corolla 3.4-4.5 mm long. Stamens inserted about the middle of the corolla, filaments about 1 mm long, anthers about 1 mm long. Staminodes lanceolate-liguliform, 1-1.5 mm long. Ovary 3.5-4.5 mm long, disk adnate to the ovary, densely ferruginously hirsute. Style 1-1.2 mm long.

Fruit

Fruits ovoid or globose, about 15-22 x 5-15 mm. Seeds about 2-5 per fruit, ellipsoid, laterally compressed, about 9-20 x 5-10 x 3-7 mm. Testa hard and woody, hilum narrow, about 1 mm wide, half as long as the seed.

Seedlings

Cotyledons +/- elliptic, about 17-22 mm long. First pair of leaves obovate, about 15-35 x 5-8 mm. Midrib raised on the upper surface. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade linear or linear-obovate, apex acute, base attenuate, glabrous; petioles of young leaves and terminal bud clothed in reddish brown hairs. Seed germination time 18 to 203 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as north-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from sea level to 750 m. Grows in well developed lowland and upland rain forest on a variety of sites. Also occurs in New Guinea and Indonesia.

Natural History & Notes

Produces a useful general purpose timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.86 Cause et al. (1989).

Synonyms
Pouteria chartacea (Benth.) Baehni, Boissiera 11 : 59(1965). Beccariella chartacea (Benth.) Aubrev., Adansonia ser. 2 4: 232(1967). Sersalisia chartacea (Benth.) Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1062(1928). Sideroxylon chartaceum (Benth.) F.Muell., Systematic Census of Australian Plants : 91(1883). Achras chartacea F.Muell. ex Benth., Flora Australiensis 4: 281(1868), Type: Queensland. Tamoshanter Point, Dallachy. [given by P. van Royen, Blumea 8 (1957) 410 as Dallachy s.n. in MEL.].
RFK Code
137
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