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Dehisced fruit. Copyright Stanley Breeden
Fruit and dehisced fruit. Copyright Stanley Breeden
Fruit, bird's eye view, dehisced and arillous seed. Copyright W. T. Cooper
Fruit, side view, dehisced and arillous seed. Copyright W. T. Cooper
Scale bar 10mm. Copyright CSIRO
10th leaf stage. Copyright CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. Copyright CSIRO
Dysoxylum rufum
Family
Meliaceae
Botanical Name
Dysoxylum rufum (A.Rich.) Benth.
Bentham, G. (1863) Flora Australiensis 1: 382. Type: ?.
Synonyms
Alliaria rufa (A.Rich.) Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 1: 109(1891), Type: ?. Hartighsea rufa A.Rich., Voyage de l'Astrolabe 2; Sertum Austrolabianum: 29(1834), Type: Crescit in Novae-Hollandiae. (V.s.s. fructif. communicatum a clar. Fraser.).
Common name
Bean, Rusty; Cedar, Bastard Pencil; False Rosewood; Hairy Rosewood; Mahogany, Rusty; Rusty Mahogany; Red Bean; Red Heart; Rusty Bean; Australian Mahogany; Bastard Pencil Cedar
Stem
Yellowish or orange speckles often visible in the blaze.
Leaves
Terminal buds and young shoots densely clothed in pale brown or golden hairs. Midrib raised on the upper surface of the leaflet blades. Domatia are foveoles with hairs at the orifice. Midrib, petioles and compound leaf axis hairy on the upper surface. Leaflet blades about 7-24 x 2-5 cm.
Flowers
Sepals distinct, +/- free from one another, imbricate, about 1.5-2 mm long, obtuse at the apex. Outer surface of the corolla clothed in pale, prostrate hairs. Petals about 11-13 mm long. Stamens ten. Disk resembles a short staminal tube. Ovary pubescent.
Fruit
Fruits globular, about 30-40 mm diam., outer surface clothed in erect irritant hairs. Sarcotesta orange-red, enclosing the seed. Cotyledons green.
Seedlings
First true leaves ovate, apex acute, base cuneate to obtuse. Intermediate leaves elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves trifoliolate, leaflet blades obovate, apex acuminate, base attenuate, hairy on both the upper and lower surfaces, hairs erect, pale; foveoles present at the junction of most lateral veins and the midrib.
Distribution and Ecology
Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ and southwards as far as coastal central New South Wales. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1100 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.
Natural History
This species is suspected as having caused death in cattle on the Atherton Tableland. Everist (1974).
This species is regarded as poisonous. (http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~djw/plantnam.html)
NEQ
X
Tree
X
RFK Code
138