Brackenridgea australiana

Family

Ochnaceae

Botanical Name

Brackenridgea australiana F.Muell.

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1865) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 29. Type: In silvis ad sinum Rockinghams Bay, ubi cuidam Aleuritidi consociata. Dallachy..

Synonyms

Brackenridgea nitida subsp. australiana (F.Muell.) Kanis, Blumea 16: 50(1969), Type: ?. Gomphia australiana F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 29(1865), Type: ?. Brackenridgea nitida A.Gray, Characters of some new Genera of plants mostly from Polynesia ...: 5(1853), Type: Feejee Islands. Campylopora australiana (F.Muell.) Tiegh., Bulletin du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 8: 547(1902), Type: ?.

Common name

Native Ochna; Brown Ochna

Stem

Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh, often scratched by possums.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 6-17 x 1.5-5 cm. The larger lateral veins forming loops with much of the total length parallel to the margin of the leaf blade while the smaller lateral veins run from the midrib to the larger lateral veins.

Flowers

Sepals about 5-6 x 3-4 mm. Petals about 4.5-5 x 2.5-3 mm. Stamens ten. Carpels attached to a swollen hemispherical receptacle with the style emerging from the centre.

Fruit

Fruit consists of a swollen receptacle with (up to 5) discrete globular black carpels each about 5 mm diam. and a persistent red calyx.

Seedlings

Cotyledons linear with an indistinct intramarginal vein. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves narrowly elliptic with numerous fine, almost ciliate, teeth; stipules toothed and sometimes deeply divided, appearing double.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ, widespread throughout the area. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1200 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.