Pseuduvaria hylandii Jessup

Jessup, L.W. (1984) Austrobaileya 2(3): 308. Type: Timber Reserve 1230, Boonjee Logging Area, 17 deg 22 S, 145 deg 44 E, 6 Oct 1977, B.Gray 731 (male) (holo: BRI; iso: QRS).

Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh.

Leaf blades about 6-15 x 2-6 cm. Closely spaced oil dots visible with a lens. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Twigs emitting a spicy odour when broken and exhibiting an oak grain in transverse section, mainly because of the expanded rays in the twig bark.

Pedicels about 7-11 mm long, submedial bract about 2-3 mm long, semi-clasping. Calyx lobes broadly ovate, about 2-3.5 mm long, puberulent outside, glabrous inside. Outer petals broadly ovate or suborbicular, about 5.5-6 x 6-7 mm, pubescent outside, glabrous inside; inner petals velutinous outside, glabrous inside, forming a dome about 9.5-14 x 8-10 mm. Stamens about 0.7-1 x 0.6-0.8 mm. Ovaries about 28, ovules 2 per ovary.

Fruiting carpels obovoid or subglobular, about 17-23 mm long. Seeds one or two per carpel. Testa rugose. Embryo minute.

One or two cataphylls usually produced before the first true leaves. First pair of true leaves shortly petiolate, ovate-lanceolate, margins smooth, mainly glabrous. Oil dots visible with a lens. Stem clothed in short pale brown hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves ovate, apex acuminate, upper surface glabrous; very small oil dots may be just visible with a lens; petiole transversely wrinkled, hairy. Seed germination time 140 days.

Endemic to NEQ, a rare species known only from a small area around Mt Bartle Frere and the Bellenden Ker Range on the Mulgrave and Russell River catchments. Altitudinal range from 600-800 m. Usually grows in very well developed rain forest on basalt.

Food plant for the larval stages of the Green Spotted Triangle Butterfly. Sankowsky & Neilsen (2000).