Tristellateia australasiae A.Rich.

Richard, L.C.M. (1834) Voyage de l'Astrolabe 2, Sertum Astrolabianum : 38. Type: Crescit in Nova-Guinea, loco dicto Port Dorey.

Shower of Gold; Maiden's jealousy

Vine stem diameters to 4 cm recorded. Milky exudate copious, drying to form a rubbery latex.

Twigs produce a copious milky exudate. 'Stipules' about 2 mm long, subulate, attached to the base of the petiole. Leaf blades about 7.5-14 x 3-7.5 cm, petioles about 1.2-2 cm long, grooved on the upper surface. Lateral veins about 5-9 on each side of the midrib. Two large, rounded glands usually visible at the apex of the petiole close to its junction with the leaf blade. Numerous lenticels visible on the twigs. Young shoots sparsely clothed in pale medifixed hairs.

Flowers about 25 mm diam. pedicels about 15-20 mm long with an articulation and a pair of bracts on the lower half. Sepals erect, about 4-5 mm long. Petals clawed (stalked) about 12-13 mm long. Staminal filaments about 3.5 mm long, +/- fused together at the base, anthers about 2 mm long. Ovary tuberculate and densely clothed in translucent medifixed hairs. Styles two or three, one usually very reduced. Ovules pendulous, one or two in each locule.

Fruits resemble aggregate fruits and are multi-lobed, about 10 x 13 mm with 3 star-shaped appendages attached to the outer surface. Each fruit appears to consist of 3 star-shaped 7(-8)-armed samaras or mericarps joined by their bases. However, as they all originated from a single flower with a syncarpous ovary they are simple fruits. Seed 3 per fruit, each seed about 5-6 mm long. Embryo about 3-4 x 2 mm, cotyledons crumpled, wavy and interlocking, much longer and wider than the radicle which is about 1.5 mm long.

Features not available.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 100 m. Grows in well developed lowland rain forest. Also occurs in SE Asia and Malesia.