Terminalia petiolaris Benth.

Bentham, G. (1864) Flora Australiensis 2: 502. Type: N. Australia. Point Cunningham, Cygnet Bay and York Sound, N.W. coast, A. Cunningham.

Marool; Blackberry tree

A small tree seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh. Deciduous; leafless for a period during the dry season.

Leaf blades about 6-13 x 3.5-8 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Domatia are glands +/- surrounded by hairs. Buds densely clothed in white prostrate hairs. Petioles about 3-6 cm long, clothed in pale +/- prostrate hairs. Midrib +/- flush with the upper surface.

Inflorescence rarely exceeding the leaves, bracts narrowly triangular, about 1.5 mm long, caducous. Perianth tube glabrous or with a few scattered hairs both inside and out, lobes acute, about 2 x 2 mm. Staminal filaments glabrous, about 4 mm long. Disk villous. Style glabrous.

Mature fruits glabrous, ellipsoid, about 20-25 x 10-15 mm, distinctly beaked at the apex. Seed about 12 x 2.5-3 mm, cotyledons convolute.

Cotyledons wider than long, about 10-16 x 24-26 mm, base rounded, apex truncate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves elliptic, apex obtuse, base cuneate, both the upper and lower surfaces clothed in long white hairs; oil dots very small, visible only with a lens; petiole, stem and terminal bud densely clothed in long white hairs. Seed germination time 31 days.

Endemic to WA, occurs in coastal areas of the Kimberley Region. Altitudinal range from sea level to about 100 m. Grows in rain forest, monsoon forest and similar closed forest communities.