Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Planchonella pohlmaniana (F.Muell.) Pierre ex Dubard var. pohlmaniana


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

Royen, P. van (1955) Blumea 8: 394. 

Common name

Yellow Boxwood; Boxwood, Yellow; Black Apple; Engraver's Wood; Yellow Boxwood; Apple, Black; Boxwood, Yellow

Stem

Bark exudate generally rather slow.

Leaves

Petioles produce a watery, milky exudate. Leaf blades about 6-15 x 2-4.5 cm. Midrib and main lateral veins raised on the upper surface of the leaf blade.

Flowers

Sepals ovate, about 3.5-4 x 3-3.3 mm, yellowish sericeous or pubescent on the outer surface, glabrous on the inner surface. Corolla about 3-4.5 mm long. Stamens inserted in the basal quarter of the corolla, filaments about 0.5 mm long, anthers about 1 mm long. Staminodes oblong or linear, about 1 mm long. Ovary about 1 mm long, brownish yellow, hirsute. Style about 2-3 mm long.

Fruit

Fruits ovoid or globose-ellipsoid, about 15-30 x 12-20 mm. Seeds, up to five per fruit, ellipsoid, laterally compressed, about 10-12 x 5-9 x 3-4 mm. Testa hard and woody, hilum about 1-2 mm wide and slightly shorter than the seed.

Seedlings

Cotyledons elliptic to obovate, about 20-30 mm long, midrib slightly raised on the upper surface. First pair of true leaves elliptic, narrowly elliptic or obovate, margins entire. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade narrowly obovate, apex acute, base attenuate, upper surface glabrous or with a few scattered hairs on the midrib near the base, about 8-12 lateral veins each side of the midrib; exudate from petiole milky, but meagre and slow to appear; petiole, stem and terminal bud clothed in prostrate, brown hairs. Seed germination time 68 to 142 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia, occurs in WA, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as north-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from sea level to 450 m. Grows in monsoon forest and drier, more seasonal rain forest with Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta).

Natural History & Notes

Produces a useful general purpose timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.73. Cause et al. (1989).

Synonyms
Planchonella pohlmaniana (F.Muell.) Pierre ex Dubard, Annales du Musee Colonial de Marseille ser. 2, 10 2, 10: 47(1912). Pouteria pohlmaniana (F.Muell.) Baehni var. pohlmaniana, Candollea 9 : 334(1942). Sapota pohlmaniana (F.Muell.) Holle, These Erlange : 17(1892). Sersalisia pohlmaniana (F.Muell.) Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1060(1928). Sideroxylon pohlmanianum (F.Muell.) F.Muell., Systematic Census of Australian Plants : 91(1883). Achras pohlmaniana F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 184(1865), Type: Ad flumen Brisbane-River, F.M.; ad urbem Rockhampton, Thozet; ad sinus Edgecombe-Bay et Rockingham-Bay, Dallachy.
RFK Code
130
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