Scale bar 10mm. Copyright CSIRO

 
10th leaf stage. Copyright CSIRO

 
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. Copyright CSIRO

Sarcotoechia villosa

Family

Sapindaceae

Botanical Name

Sarcotoechia villosa S.T.Reynolds

Reynolds, S.T. () Flora of Australia 25: 201. Type: Mt Lewis, Timber Reserve 66, Qld, V.K.Moriarty 2537; holo: QRS.

Stem

A small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh.

Leaves

Compound leaves usually consisting of two leaflets. Leaflet blades about 3.5-12 x 2-3.5 cm, sessile or very shortly stalked and swollen at their junction with the compound leaf petiole. Midrib hairy, +/- flush with the upper surface of the leaflet blade. Terminal buds and leaf bearing twigs densely clothed in pale, +/- erect hairs.

Flowers

Inflorescence about 2-7 cm long, pedicels up to 2.5 mm long. Calyx about 1.5 mm long, puberulent, lobes ovate. Petals ovate, shortly clawed, about 1.5-2 mm long. Stamens usually eight, filaments hairy, about 2-3 mm long, inserted inside the orange disk.

Fruit

Fruits subglobose, about 15-25 x 15-20 mm, 3-locular, but usually 1-seeded. Valves glabrous except for the villous sutures. Aril cupular, bilobed, confined to the base of the seed. Seed ovoid, about 6-7 x 4-5 mm.

Seedlings

First pair of leaves +/- elliptic, blades about 15-20 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade +/- oblanceolate, about 11-20 cm long, apex acuminate, base attenuate; midrib hairy and raised on the upper surface; petiole, stem and terminal bud densely clothed in pale, +/- erect hairs.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the area between Mossman, Mt Molloy and Kuranda. Altitudinal range from 50-1000 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites. This species has one of the shortest flowering-fruiting cycles yet found in northern Australian rain forest, viz. two weeks.

NEQ

X

Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)

X

Tree

X

RFK Code

993