Symplocos cyanocarpa C.T.White var. cyanocarpa

Jessup, L.W. (2011). Austrobaileya 8(3): 236.

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

Leaf blades about 9-21 x 2-6 cm. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Blade margin very finely toothed. Petiole grooved on the upper surface.

Flowers in axillary fascicles. Calyx clothed in white hairs, lobes about 1 mm long. Petals about 2 mm long. Stamens about 10-17, dimorphic, some long, some short. Disk or the top of the ovary orange.

Fruits about 20-22 x 9-11 mm, calyx persistent at the apex. Stone about 17 x 3 mm. Cotyledons no wider than the radicle and forming only 30% of the length of the embryo.

Cotyledons (when they emerge from the seed coat) linear, about 13-18 x 1.2 mm, apex obtuse to truncate. Venation difficult to observe but the lateral veins may appear to depart from the midrib and run backwards down the cotyledon towards the margin. First pair of leaves elliptic to ovate, about 9-12 mm long, petioles about 0.5-1 mm long, apex acute or apiculate, base attenuate, margin toothed or lobed with 3-9 teeth on each side, midrib depressed on the upper surface. Seed germination time 262 to 563 days.

Endemic to NEQ, known from near Mt Finnigan to south of Mossman. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 850 m. Grows as an understory plant in lowland and upland rain forest.

Symplocos cyanocarpa C.T.White, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 47: 69 (1936). Type: Queensland, Mossman River, 4 Feb. 1932, L. J. Brass 2050; holo: A; iso: BISH, BRI, MEL.