Planchonia rupestris R.L.Barrett

Barrett, R.L. (2006) Australian Systematic Botany 19(2): 151. Type: Edkins Ra., 8 km N of Charnley R. on track to Walcott Inlet from Beverley Springs Stn, 16 10S, 125 26E, WA, R.L. Barrett & M.D. Barrett RLB 364, 14 Oct. 1992.

Sandstone Cocky Apple

Deciduous tree, 2-8 m tall. Bark up to 1 cm thick, suberose, fissured, grey-brown to black. Dead bark layered. Blaze very fibrous and the layers at different angles producing an interlocked type of grain.

Thinly leathery (coriaceous), glabrous, discolorous, glossy above and sub-glossy below, obovate to broadly ovate, the smallest leaves narrowly obovate, 37-66(96) x 22-38(55) mm; apex obtuse to bluntly acute, tip obtuse to slightly emarginate; margin entire to very slightly crennate; base long attenuate; midrib flat or slightly raised above; lateral nerves in 8-9 pairs, forming indistinct loops inside the blade margin, angled at 45 degress to midrib; petiole 3-5 mm long.

Racemes with few, large flowers; pedicels puberulous, 1.5-5 mm long. Calyx tube green, 5-8.5 mm long; largest lobes 4.5-6.5 x 4-9 mm, the smallest 2.5-4 x 3.5-4 mm. Petals white, pink at the base, greenish on the back, 12-18 x 5-10 mm. Staminal tube 2-4 mm long; filaments ca. 70-90 per flower, 12-19 mm long. Style 14-27 mm long.

Fruit elliptical to ovoid, smooth, 17-41 mm long including calyx lobes, 10-19 mm wide. Many seeds, flat, 5-6 mm long, 6 mm wide, pale brown, embedded in a fibrous mesocarp.

Features not available.

Endemic in WA. Altitudinal range from sea level to 50 m. Known only from the sandstone plateau of the Kimberley region; in open forest and in monsoon forest.