Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition
Quintinia quatrefagesii F.Muell.
Mueller, F.J.H. von (1890) The Victorian Naturalist 7: 181. Type: On the summit of Mt. Bartle-Frere, at an elevation of about 5,000 feet; Stephen Johnson.
Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh.
Scattered silvery scales visible with a lens on both the upper and lower surfaces, each scale in a pit on the surface. Leaf blades about 10-24 x 4-14 cm. Lateral veins forming a series of loops just inside the blade margin.
Calyx lobes about 0.2-0.3 mm long. Petals +/- triangular, about 3 mm long, glabrous outside but with a conspicuous +/- triangular patch of hairs near the base on the inner surface. Anther connective conspicuously hairy on both the front and the back. Staminal filaments about 0.3 mm long. Stigmas usually four, comparatively large, +/- globular.
Capsules small, about 2.5-3 x 3 mm, but usually produced in abundance, calyx lobes persistent at the apex. Seeds very small, about 0.5 mm long.
Occurs in NEQ where it is restricted to the area between Mt Spurgeon and Mt Bartle Frere, and CEQ where it is restricted to Eungella National Park. Altitudinal range from 600-1550 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest but probably more common in mountain rain forest. This species is favoured by disturbance and colonises landslides and road cuttings very successfully.