Acalypha lyonsii

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Botanical Name

Acalypha lyonsii P.I.Forst.

Forster, P.I. (1994) Austrobaileya 4: 216. Type: Queensland, Isley Hills, McKinnon Creek, 18 May 1992, C. Lyons 113; holo: BRI.

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub 1-4 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blade about 10-45 x 8-25 mm, petiole about 2-4 mm long. Lateral veins about 5-10 on each side of the midrib. Margin crenate with about 4-9 teeth on each side. Oil dots numerous, visible with a lens. Stipules very small, triangular, about 0.5-1 mm long with a hair-like appendage at the apex. Twig hairs hooked or bent.

Flowers

Male flowers: Flowers borne in slender spikes about 10-20 mm long. Stamens 12. Anther cells quite discrete, each borne on a separate stalk which is attached to the apex of the filament. Female flowers: Flowers about 3 mm diam., solitary, subtended by a large bract with a crenate margin, pedicel about 3.5 mm long. Ovary clothed in stiff hairs and each style ends in several branched hairs.

Fruit

Enlarged, crenate floral bract about 5-20 mm diam. persistent at the base of the fruit. Fruits 3-lobed, about 2 x 3-4 mm. Styles and stigmas persistent at the apex. Seeds smooth, +/- globose, about 1.5-2.2 x 1.6-1.9 mm. Embryo about 1 mm long, radicle about 0.3-0.4 m long.

Seedlings

Cotyledons orbicular to obtriangular, about 7-8 x 6 mm. Petiole about 2.5 mm. Venation palmate. First pair of leaves with toothed margins. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade about 15 x 8 mm, oil dots small and numerous, stipules small, triangular, about 0.5 mm long. Stem clothed in white, prostrate or arched hairs.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, known only from collections made from two populations near Cairns. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 200 m. Grows in lowland rain forest.