Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Steganthera australiana C.T.White


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
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Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

White, C.T. (1944) Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 55: 78. Type: Queensland, Garradunga, C.T. White 11738, 5 Dec. 1941; Holo: BRI.

Stem

Flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-5 m tall but probably grows into a small tree.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 11-12 x 4-5 cm, petioles about 5 mm long. Lateral veins forming loops well inside the blade margin. Oak grain in the twigs. Medifixed hairs present on young twigs and leaves.

Flowers

Male flowers open by a terminal pore with tepal lobes on the margin. Outer surface of the perianth tube clothed in prostrate medifixed hairs. 'Anther filaments' as wide as or wider than the anthers.

Fruit

Receptacle orange, yellow or greenish-yellow.

Seedlings

Cotyledons ovate, almost cordate, about 23-32 x 15-20 mm, apex apiculate, base truncate. First pair of leaves opposite, elliptic, glabrous, margins toothed. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade narrowly elliptic, apex acuminate, base attenuate, margin conspicuously toothed. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Seed germination time 59 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1000 m. Grows as an understory plant in lowland and upland rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea.

RFK Code
1138
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