Vanroyena castanosperma (C.T.White) Aubrev.

Aubreville, A. (1963) Adansonia 3: 329. Type: ?.

Saffron Boxwood; Plum, Yellow; Plum, Poison; Plum, Milky; Yellow Plum; Boxwood, Saffron; Poison Plum; Milky Plum

Bark exudate quite conspicuous. Living bark layer quite thin, about 2-3 mm. Narrow, yellowish, vertical stripes in the blaze.

Petioles and twigs produce a milky exudate. Leaf blades about 4-10 x 1.5-4.9 cm.

Sepals ferruginously sericeous on the inner and outer surfaces. Corolla about 7-12 mm long, usually glabrous on both surfaces but the margins of the lobes minutely ciliate. Stamens attached well below the throat of the tube. Staminodes subulate, about 2 mm long. Ovary about 1.5-2.5 mm diam., densely ferruginously villous. Style about 7.5-11 mm long.

Fruits +/- ovoid, about 40-60 x 30-40 mm. Sepals persistent. Seeds one or two per fruit, about 25-40 x 30 x 25 mm. Testa thick, hard and woody. Hilum about 15-35 x 12 mm.

A few cataphylls are produced before the first pair of true leaves. First pair of true leaves lanceolate, midrib raised on the upper surface, both the upper and lower surfaces mainly glabrous. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade lanceolate to ovate, apex acuminate, base obtuse to cuneate, glabrous; petiole grooved on the upper surface; stem with pale lenticels. Taproot somewhat thickened, lenticels pale, rather large. Seed germination time 26 to 50 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the area between the McIvor River area and Tully. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1200 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Seeds eaten by native rats. Cooper & Cooper (1994).