Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Symplocos graniticola Jessup


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers. © A. Ford
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon and 1st leaf stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Jessup, L.W. (1993) Austrobaileya 4: 9. Type: Queensland, Mt Lewis, 24 Dec.1986, G.Sankowsky 598 & N.Sankowsky; holo: BRI.

Stem

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

Leaves

Leaf blades about 19-24 x 4-6 cm, petioles about 1.3-2 cm long. Leaf blade margin minutely toothed. Lateral veins depressed on the upper surface and forming loops inside the blade margin.

Flowers

Male flowers: Corolla about 3 mm long. Stamens about 21-25 per flower. Anthers orange. Ovulodes present. Stigma absent. Female flowers: Flowers faintly but sweetly perfumed, staminodes about 25 per flower, polymorphic with about three height classes. Ovary 3-locular with one ovule per locule. Style orange-brown at the base. Stigmas green.

Fruit

Fruits about 11-18 x 10-12 mm. Stones longitudinally ribbed, about 9-14 mm long. Cotyledons about half the length of the embryo and cotyledons about as wide as the radicle.

Seedlings

Cotyledons linear, about 10-12 x 1.5 mm, petioles about 1 mm long. First pair of leaves about 11-14 x 6-7 mm, petioles about 2-3 mm long, margin toothed with about 4 or 5 teeth towards the apex. Seed germination time 331 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Queensland, known only from NEQ, collections made on Mt Lewis, Mt Spurgeon and other mountains in the Mossman area. Altitudinal range from 1000-1200 m. Grows as an understory plant in mountain rain forest.

RFK Code
3478
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