Syzygium minutuliflorum (F.Muell.) B.Hyland

Myrtaceae

Hyland, B.P.M. (1983) Australian Journal of Botany Supplementary Series 9: 104.

Gove Satinash; Satinash, Gove

Bark often brown and powdery just outside the living bark layer.

Leaf blades about 7.4-12.7 x 2.7-5.4 cm, obtuse or shortly acuminate at the apex, petioles about 0.3-0.9 cm long. Midrib depressed on the upper surface.

Bracts deciduous, absent at anthesis. Calyx tube (hypanthium) + pedicel about 2.5-4 mm long, calyx tube (hypanthium) about 2-3.5 mm diam., calyx lobes rounded, small and inconspicuous, less than 0.5 mm long. Petals cohering, each petal +/- circular, about 1.5-3 mm diam., oil dots present or absent, fewer than ten per petal. Outer staminal filaments about 1-4 mm long, anthers about 0.3-0.6 x 0.3-0.6 mm, gland small, terminal, near the back of the anther. Ovules about 8-16 per locule, placentas central, ovules radiating, ascending. Style about 1-3 mm long, shorter than the stamens.

Fruits depressed globular or depressed obovoid, apex excavated, attaining about 10-21 x 10-15 mm, calyx lobes persistent but very small and scarcely discernible, pericarp succulent. Seed solitary, attaining about 8 mm diam., testa slightly attached to the pericarp but fairly strongly attached to the cotyledons by means of a dark tanniferous layer, cotyledons uniformly textured, except for the outer tanniferous layer. Radicle lateral.

Cataphylls about 1-3 pairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic or obovate-elliptic, apex acuminate, base attenuate; oil dots visible with a lens or just visible to the naked eye. Seed germination time 29 days.

Endemic to NT. Altitudinal range from sea level to 150 m. Grows in rain forest and gallery forest usually in soils which are waterlogged for a substantial part of each year.

Although not usually regarded as a commercial species, logs can be converted into sawn structural timber (R. Petherick, personal communication). Wood specific gravity 0.70. Hyland (1983).

Eugenia minutuliflora F.Muell., Vict. Nat. 8: 197(1892), Type: Port Darwin, M. Holtze46; holo: MEL. Eugenia essingtoniana S.Moore, Linn. Jour. Bot. 45: 206(1920), Type: Port Essington, Armstrong; iso: K.