Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Ryparosa kurrangii B.L.Webber


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Female flowers. © CSIRO
Fruit, side views and cross section. © W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Webber, B.L. & Woodrow, I.E. (2006) Australian Systematic Botany 19(6): 566-567. Type: Australia, Queensland, Cook District, Daintree NP, Mt Hutchinson [description abbreviated], (16 12S, 145 25E), Webber, B.L. & Curtis A.S.O., BW 017, 12.iv.2003 (holo: MELU [D102277]; isotypes: BO, CANB, K, L, QRS).

Stem

Trunk bumpy.

Leaves

Leaf blades rather large, about 15-32 x 4-8 cm, much paler on the underside. Terminal buds and young shoots clothed in short, rusty brown hairs. Petiole swollen at its junction with the twig. Pulvinus channelled on the upper surface.

Flowers

Calyx closed in the bud, 3-4 lobed at anthesis, about 2-2.5 mm long. Petals with a hairy ovate scale (about 1.5-2 mm long) on the inner surface at the base, petals about 3-4.5 x 2.5 mm. Male flowers: Staminal column about 4 mm long, anthers about 2 mm long. Female flowers: Staminodes present, ovary sessile, densely hairy, styles very short or absent, stigmas two or three.

Fruit

Fruit produced from the bumps on the trunk and also on the branches and twigs. Fruits densely clothed in dark brown hairs, variable in shape depending on whether one, two or more seeded, about 30-40 x 30-45 mm. Seeds about 20 mm diam. Cotyledons flat, +/- orbicular, about 9 mm diam.

Seedlings

First leaves ovate or lanceolate with a long mucro at the apex. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, apex acuminate or mucronate, base cuneate or obtuse, upper surface glabrous; petiole hairy, grooved on the upper surface. Seed germination time 149 to 296 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the area between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation. Altitudinal range small, from near sea level to 100 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed lowland rain forest.

Natural History & Notes

The name Ryparosa javanica was previously misapplied to this species.

RFK Code
450
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