Polyscias bellendenkerensis (F.M.Bailey) Philipson

Araliaceae

Philipson, W.R. (1977) Austrobaileya 1(1): 24.

Usually grows into a small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh but usually flowers and fruits as a single stemmed shrub. Blaze odour strong +/- resembling that of mango (Mangifera indica) bark.

Freshly broken twigs produce a clear aromatic exudate. Compound leaf petioles clasping the twigs. Terminal leaflet has a long leaflet stalk with a pulvinus at the apex. Leaflet blades about 3-9 x 1.5-3 cm. Terminal buds clothed in short rusty brown hairs.

Flowers in umbels which are arranged in panicles. Petals about 2.5-3 mm long. Style arms fused forming a beak-like projection after anthesis.

Fruits +/- obovoid, about 8 x 6-7 mm. Styles fused and persisting as a beak at the apex of the fruit. Embryo very small.

Cotyledons lanceolate or elliptic, about 11-17 x 6-8 mm. First pair of leaves with a few teeth towards the apex. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves sometimes a combination of a palmate and a pinnate leaf. Seed germination time 62 to 189 days.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from collections made on the Bellenden Ker Range, Mt Bartle Frere, the headwaters of Douglas Creek on the Daintree River catchment and the Mt Pieter Botte area at elevations of 750 m or more. Grows only in mountain rain forest.

Kissodendron bellendenkerense (Bailey) Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1038(1928). Pentapanax bellendenkerensis F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 15(1): 491(1904), Type: Summit of Bellenden-Ker, Mestons Expedition, 1904.