Pseuduvaria mulgraveana Jessup var. mulgraveana

Annonaceae

Jessup, L.W. (1984) Austrobaileya 2(3): 312.

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub or small tree up to 7 m tall but also flowers when only about 2 m tall.

Leaf bearing twigs clothed in erect, pale brown hairs. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Oak grain visible in transverse sections of the twigs. Leaf blades about 10-20 x 3.5-6.5 cm. Petioles quite short, 0.1-0.3 cm long, densely clothed in pale brown hairs. Midrib clothed in hairs on the upper surface of the leaf blade. Lateral veins not very obvious.

Flowers on long slender pedicels about 2.5-5 cm long. Calyx lobes broadly ovate, about 1.5-2.2 mm long, puberulent outside, glabrous inside. Outer petals free, obovate to suborbicular, about 6-8 x 6-8 mm, puberulent outside, glabrous inside; inner petals puberulent outside, glabrous inside, forming a dome about 10-14 x 10.5-13 mm by fusion of the apices and lateral margins. Each of the inner petals clawed with two large, red, thickened (glandular?) areas on the inner surface. Anthers sessile, about 1.1-1.3 x 0.8-1 mm. Ovaries about 28. Ovules 1 or 2 per ovary.

Fruiting carpels about 15-20 mm long, +/- sessile, borne in +/- globular heads on stalks up to 5 cm long. Seeds one or two per carpel. Testa scrobiculate. Embryo minute, about 2 mm long, cotyledons +/- triangular, clearly differentiated from the radicle.

First pair of leaves clothed in hairs on both the upper and lower surfaces. Stem clothed in short pale hairs both above and below the cotyledonary scars. At the tenth leaf stage: oil dots visible with a lens. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Petioles very short. Terminal bud, stem, petiole and both the upper and lower leaf blade surfaces hairy. Seed germination time 73 to 103 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the areas around the base of the Bellenden Ker Range and the base of Mt Bartle Frere. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 100 m. Grows as an understory shrub or small tree in well developed lowland rain forest.

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

Pseuduvaria mulgraveana Jessup, Austrobaileya 2(3): 310(1984), Type: Queensland, Goldsborough State Forest, Mulgrave River, 17 15 S, 145 46 S [sic], 11 Dec 1984, L.W.Jessup 746; holo: BRI; iso: K, L, QRS.