Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Uvaria uhrii (F.Muell.) L.L.Zhou, Y.C.F.Zu & R.M.K.Saunders


Vine
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
1st leaf stage, cotyledons absent. © CSIRO
Vine stem transverse section. © CSIRO
Family

Zhou, L. Su, Y.C.F., Chalermglin, P. & Saunders, R.M.K. (2010) Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 163: 39.

Stem

Grows into a large tree-top vine, stem diameters to 9 cm recorded. Blaze pleasantly perfumed, perhaps spicy. Blaze marked by cream granular stripes and darker pinkish brown fibrous stripes. Vascular rays visible in the wood but more obvious in the bark.

Leaves

Younger twigs and petioles densely clothed in rusty brown hairs. Leaf blades about 4-15 x 2.5-7 cm, petioles about 0.4-1 cm long. Underside of the leaf blades clothed in reddish brown stellate hairs. Similar hairs are also visible on the upper surface along the midrib. Leaf blades slightly aromatic when crushed. Twig bark strong and fibrous when stripped. Oak grain in the twigs particularly obvious in the twig bark. Tendrils are modified branches.

Flowers

Inflorescence short, flowers about 20 mm diam. each on a pedicel about 20 mm long. Flowers perfumed but the odour difficult to describe. Sepals about 7 mm long. Outer petals spreading, thick and fleshy, about 9-18 mm long. Inner petals obovate, curved, forming an arch over the carpels, about 7-15 mm long. Stamens numerous, about 150-200 per flower, anthers sessile or shortly stalked, each anther about 2 mm long. Carpels about 50-70, each about 1.5-3 mm long. Ovules usually 1 per carpel.

Fruit

Fruiting carpels about 20, each clothed in sessile stellate hairs. Each fruiting carpel about 10-15 x 9-10 mm. Seeds about 5-8 x 6 mm, usually 1 per carpel. Embryo no more than 1 mm long, located at the base of the seed. Radicle and cotyledons +/- equal in length.

Seedlings

First pair of leaves with blades about 2.2-2.5 x 1.2 cm. Young shoots and stems clothed in rusty brown erect hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in brown or rusty brown +/- erect hairs (mainly on the veins). Terminal buds and stem clothed in brown or rusty brown simple and stellate hairs. Seed germination time 38 to 69 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NEQ and in CEQ near Proserpine. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Grows in well developed lowland and upland rain forest.

Natural History & Notes

Food plant for the larval stages of the Fourbar Swordtail, Green Spotted Triangle and the Pale Green Triangle Butterflies. Common & Waterhouse (1981); Sankowsky & Neilsen (2000).

Synonyms

Melodorum uhrii F.Muell. , Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 6: 2 (1868). Type: In silvis ad sinum Rockinghams Bay. Dallachy.

RFK Code
2042
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