Pleioluma brownlessiana (F.Muell.) Swenson & Munzinger

Swenson, U. et al (2013) Taxon 62(4): 763.

Boxwood

Generally less than 30 cm dbh. Exudate meagre. Cream or pale brown stripes in the inner blaze.

Leaf blades about 6.5-16 x 2.1-4.6 cm, pale brown or silvery on the underside, gradually tapering to the base. Midrib and main lateral veins slightly raised on the upper surface. Reticulate veins between lateral veins run at right angles to the midrib.

Sepals ovate or broadly elliptic, about 6-7 x 4-5.5 mm, sericeous on both the inner and outer surfaces. Corolla about 7-8 mm long. Stamens inserted below the middle of the corolla, filaments about 1.5 mm long, anthers about 1.5 mm long. Staminodes lanceolate, about 2-2.5 mm long. Ovary up to 7 mm long, base surrounded by a 5-lobed, whitish, hirsute disk. Style hirsute in the lower half, about 4-7 mm long.

Fruits ellipsoid-ovoid, about 32 x 10 mm. Seeds one or two per fruit, ellipsoid-ovoid, flat on one side, about 18 x 8 x 6 mm, hilum about 1.5 mm wide running about 3/4 of the length of the seed. Testa hard and woody.

Cotyledons elliptic, about 30 mm long, midrib raised on the upper surface. First pair of leaves obovate, the lower surface densely clothed in fawn-coloured hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, apex acuminate, base attenuate, upper surface clothed in long, somewhat matted, prostrate, white hairs, undersurface silvery or brown from dense, matted, prostrate hairs, lateral veins about 4-6 on each side of the midrib. Seed germination time 26 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the area between Cooktown and the Atherton Tableland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1100 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Pouteria brownlessiana (F.Muell.) Baehni, Candollea 9: 318 (1942).Beccariella brownlessiana (F.Muell.) Swenson, Bartish & Munzinger, Cladistics 23: 221(2007). Sideroxylon brownlessiana (F.Muell.) F.Muell., Systematic Census of Australian Plants : 92(1883). Sersalisia brownlessiana (F.Muell.) Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1062(1928). Planchonella brownlessiana (F.Muell.) P.Royen, Blumea 8: 343(1955). Achras brownlessiana F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 7: 111(1869), Type: Ad oram Rockinghams Bay in silvis densis montium; J. Dallachy. [given by P. van Royen, Blumea 8 (1957) 343 Dallachy s.n. in MEL.]. Sersalisia brachyloba Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1061(1928), Type: Nordwest-Queensland: in den Regenwalden bei Lake Eachem haufig (DOMIN II. 1910).