Steganthera laxiflora subsp. laxiflora

Family

Monimiaceae

Botanical Name

Steganthera laxiflora (Benth.) Whiffin & Foreman subsp. laxiflora

Whiffin, T & Foreman, D.B. (2007) Flora of Australia 2: 452. Type: ?.

Synonyms

Mollinedia laxiflora (Benth.) F.Muell., Systematic Census of Australian Plants: 3(1883), Type: ?. Tetrasynandra laxiflora (Benth.) Perkins, Botanische Jahrbucher 25: 569(1898), Type: ?. Kibara laxiflora Benth., Flora Australiensis 5: 289(1870), Type: Qld, Rockingham Bay, Dallachy, 1870; Lecto: K. Fide T. Whiffin & D. Foreman (2007). Mollinedia subternata F.M.Bailey, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Botany Bulletin 5: 22(1892), Type: Freshwater Creek, near Cairns, E. Cowley; Holo: BRI.

Common name

Beech, Tetra; Tetra Beech

Stem

Oak grain in the wood. Blaze odour faint, perhaps resembling guava (Psidium guajava).

Leaves

Oil dots visible with a lens. Leaf blades about 6-18 x 1.5-8 cm. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Terminal buds, young shoots and younger leafy twigs hairy. Midrib hairy on the upper surface of young leaves. Oak grain in the twigs visible with a lens.

Flowers

Inflorescence usually shorter than the leaves, sometimes approximating the leaves. Flowers about 2-3 mm diam. Female flowers +/- operculate. Tepals small and inconspicuous, broad, and +/- rounded, up to 0.5 mm long. Staminal filaments fused to form a short thick tube, anthers opening by an apical slit. Carpels about 18-22, about 1 mm long, villous.

Fruit

Receptacle yellowish-green, not very swollen, pubescent. Fruiting carpels ellipsoid, about 15-16 x 13 mm. Seed about 11-12 x 7-8 mm. Embryo about 5-6 x 1 mm. Cotyledons about as wide as (or slightly wider than) the radicle.

Seedlings

Cotyledons ovate to lanceolate or triangular, 20-25 mm long, 3-veined. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade +/- elliptic, apex acute or acuminate, base cuneate, margins serrate, teeth on the upper 2/3rds of the leaf blade, hairy on the upper surface; petiole, stem and terminal bud densely clothed in reddish brown hairs.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP(?), NEQ and southwards as far as coastal central Queensland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1100 m. Grows as an understory tree in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.