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Leaves and Flowers. Copyright CSIRO

Flowers. Copyright CSIRO

Dehisced fruit and arillous seed. Copyright CSIRO

Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. Copyright CSIRO

Scale bar 10mm. Copyright CSIRO

10th leaf stage. Copyright CSIRO
Alectryon tomentosus
Family
Sapindaceae
Botanical Name
Alectryon tomentosus (F.Muell.) Radlk.
Radlkofer, L.A.T. (1879) Actes du Congres Internationale de Botanistes ... Amsterdam for 1877: 117. Type: ?.
Synonyms
Nephelium tomentosum F.Muell., Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 2: 64(1857), Type: On the Brisbane River. Hill & Mueller..
Common name
Woolly Rambutan; Bed-jacket; Hairy Alectryon; Hairy Bird's Eye; Red Jacket
Stem
A small tree seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh. Blaze layering usually very conspicuous.
Leaves
Young twigs longitudinally grooved and clothed in yellow +/- erect tortuous hairs. Leaflet blades about 4-14.5 x 2-6.5 cm. Leaflet stalks quite short.
Flowers
Calyx (perianth) 5-lobed, about 1.5 mm long, villous. Petals absent. Anthers red. Disk red.
Fruit
Capsules about 8-22 mm diam, sessile, with 1-3 knob-like lobes, densely woolly on the outer surface. Seeds black. Aril cupular, but much larger than and almost obscuring the seed, granular and red.
Seedlings
Cotyledons +/- spathulate, about 10-12 mm long. First pair of leaves trifoliolate, the leaflets lobed or coarsely toothed. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blades coarsely toothed, terminal bud clothed in yellowish, erect, tortuous hairs.
Distribution and Ecology
Endemic to Australia, occurs in CYP, NEQ and southwards as far as coastal central New South Wales. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 950 m. Grows in monsoon forest and drier, more seasonal rain forest.
CYP
X
NEQ
X
Tree
X
RFK Code
865