Thaleropia queenslandica (L.S.Sm.) Peter G.Wilson

Myrtaceae

Wilson, Peter G. (1993) Australian Systematic Botany 6: 258.

Satinash, Myrtle; Myrtle Satinash; Pink Myrtle

Stem surface often irregular on large trees.

Stipules very small and indistinct, filiform, about 0.5 mm long. Young shoots clothed in short, rusty hairs but older twigs and leaves glabrous. Oil dots very numerous, almost touching one another. Leaf blades about 3.3-5 x 1.6-2.2 cm. Midrib raised on the upper surface of the leaf blade. Lateral veins scarcely visible on the upper surface.

Calyx tube (hypanthium) and lobes clothed in short, pale, tortuous hairs. Petals +/- glabrous on the inner surface, but pubescent on the outer surface, about 3 x 3.5 mm, abruptly narrowed into a very short stalk about 0.5 mm wide. Anther filaments about 7 mm long, anthers with a large oil gland at the tip of the connective. Style about as long as the stamens.

Calyx lobes persistent at the apex. Fruits +/- hemispherical, about 3-4 x 4.5 mm diam. Seeds about 0.5-0.6 x 0.2-0.3 mm.

Cotyledons elliptic, about 5 x 2 mm, oil dots scattered, small, visible only with a lens. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade narrowly elliptic, glabrous, two intramarginal veins present on some parts of the leaf blade; midrib raised on the upper surface; oil dots visible with a lens. Seed germination time 14 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the Atherton Tableland and surrounding mountains. Altitudinal range from 800-1200 m. Grows in well developed upland and mountain rain forest.

Although a large tree in nature, this is a beautiful shrub in cultivation. Foliage is dense and glossy and plants become covered with large clusters of small orange-yellow flowers.

Produces a useful general purpose timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.77. Cause et al. (1989).

Metrosideros queenslandica L.S.Smith, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland 69: 50(1958), Type: Queensland, Timber Reserve 99, 1.12.1952, K. J. White 391, holo: BRI.