Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Trochocarpa bellendenkerensis Domin


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flowers. © T. Hawkes
Flowers. © T. Hawkes
Leaves and fruit. © CSIRO
Leaves and fruit. © Australian Plant Image Index (APII). Photographer: M. Fagg.
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, Epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Domin, K. (1928) Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1050. Type: Nordost-Queensland; auf dem kamme des Bellenden-Ker haufig (DOMIN I. 1910).

Common name

Wheel Fruit; Waddywood; Turkey Bush; Tree Heath; Sandberry; Laurel Heath; Heath, Tree; Heath, Laurel; Axebreaker

Stem

A small shrubby tree.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 35-45 x 10-20 mm with about 5-7 veins running from the base to the apex. Terminal buds enclosed in numerous bud scales or bracts.

Flowers

Inflorescence about 15-50 mm long. Sepals striate, about 2 mm long. Corolla tube about 2-2.5 mm long, lobes about 1-1.5 mm long, corolla glabrous outside but lobes and upper part of the tube hairy on the inner surface. Anthers about 1.2 mm long, exserted for about half of their length. Disk shortly 5-lobed. Ovary glabrous, with ten locules, one ovule per locule, ovary tapering into a short thick style.

Fruit

Fruits depressed globular, about 6-8 x 4-5 mm. Seeds enclosed in a 10-ribbed stone formed by coherence of the endocarps.

Seedlings

Cotyledons linear-obovate, about 4-6 x 1 mm. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate, about 5-10 mm long, apex acute, base sessile or very shortly petiolate, upper surface glabrous, except for the ciliate margins; +/- 3-veined. Seed germination time 159 to 438 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from 600-1200 m. Restricted to mountain tops and stunted windswept rain forest on exposed ridges.

RFK Code
1003
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