Terminalia volucris R.Br. ex Benth.

Bentham, G. (1864), Flora Australiensis 2: 498. Lectotype: "Island a 28 (Sweers Island) 17 Nov. 1802, R. Brown (BM, lectotype; K, iso)".

Yellow-wood

Dead bark layered.

Leaf blades about 3-10 x 2.5-6.5 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Terminal buds clothed in white silky prostrate hairs. Midrib flush with or slightly depressed on the upper surface. Glands usually present on the underside of the leaf blade at major forks on the lateral veins.

Inflorescence exceeding the leaves, bracts narrowly triangular, about 1 mm long, caducous. Perianth tube pubescent, lobes triangular, about 1.5 x 1.5 mm, pilose outside, sparsely villous inside. Staminal filaments glabrous, about 2-3 mm long. Disk villous. Style villous in the lower part, glabrous in the upper part.

Mature fruits glabrous, 2-winged, body about 10-20 mm long, flattened on one side with a longitudinal wing on the other. Wings broadly elliptical to rectangular, continuous above or below the body or both. Wings about 20-70 x 20-30 mm. Seed about 10-12 x 3-5 mm, cotyledons convolute.

Features not available.

Endemic to Australia, widespread across northern Australia. Occurs in WA, NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 400 m. Usually grows in open forest or savannah situations but also found in monsoon forest.

Although Terminalia oblongata ssp. oblongata is poisonous to stock, T. oblongata [1] [2] ssp. volucris is considered a useful fodder tree. Pedley (1990).

Myrobalanus volucris (R.Br. ex Benth.) Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 1: 237(1891). Terminalia oblongata subsp. volucris (R.Br. ex Benth.) Pedley, Flora of Australia 18: 327 (1990).