Psychotria poliostemma Benth.

Bentham, G. (1867) Flora Australiensis 3: 428. Type: Queensland. Cape York, MGillivray; Edgecombe Bay, Dallachy; Mount Elliott, Fitzalan.

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-3 m tall, sometimes taller.

Stipules interpetiolar, base broad, apex bifid. Leaf blades about 4.5-11.5 x 1.7-6.5 cm. Lateral veins curving and forming loops inside the blade margin.

Outer surface of the calyx and corolla clothed in fine short hairs. Corolla tube about 2-3 mm long, lobes about 1.5-2 mm long. Throat of the corolla congested and filled with hairs. Base of the style surrounded by a flat disk.

Fruit +/- globose, about 7 x 7 mm. Calyx lobes present at the orifice. Fruits cream or pale yellow. "Seeds" (endocarps) two per fruit, about 4.5 mm long, flattened on one side, convex on the other, the convex side being markedly ribbed. Endosperma +/- ruminate. Embryo about 2 mm long.

Cotyledons ovate to orbicular, about 7-13 x 5-11 mm. Hypocotyl longitudinally ribbed. First pair of leaves glabrous, opposite and stipulate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, apex acute, base attenuate. Stipules about 6 mm long, interpetiolar, bifid at the apex. Seed germination time 72 to 176 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as south-eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range in CYP and NEQ from near sea level to 100 m. Grows in vine thickets, monsoon forest and other types of closed forest usually on sand dunes close to the sea.