Flindersia laevicarpa explained

Flindersia laevicarpa, commonly known in Australia as rose ash, scented maple or dirran maple,[1] is a species of medium-sized to large tree in the family Rutaceae and is native to Papua New Guinea, West Papua and Queensland. It has pinnate leaves with four to eight egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets, panicles of cream-coloured, yellowish, red or purple flowers and smooth woody fruit that split into five at maturity, releasing winged seeds.

Description

Flindersia laevicarpa is a tree that grows to a height of . It has pinnate leaves long with four to eight egg-shaped leaflets long and wide on petiolules long. The flowers are arranged in panicles long, the sepals about long and the petals cream-coloured, yellowish, red or purple and long. Flowering occurs from January to July and the fruit is a smooth, woody capsule long that splits into five, releasing seeds that are long.[2] [3]

Taxonomy

Flindersia laevicarpa was first formally described in 1920 by Cyril Tenison White and William Douglas Francis in the Botany Bulletin of the Queensland Department of Agriculture.[4]

In 1969, Thomas Hartley described two varieties and the name of the autonym is accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

Distribution and habitat

Variety laevicarpa grows in rainforest at altitudes of between and occurs from near the Daintree River to Gadgarra in far north Queensland. Variety heterophylla is found from sea level to an altitude of about between Misool Island in West Papua to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Flindersia laevicarpa var. laevicarpa . F.A.Zich . B.P.M.Hyland . T.Whiffen . R.A.Kerrigan . Bernard Hyland . 2020 . Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants Edition 8 (RFK8) . . 1 July 2021.
  2. Web site: Flindersia laevicarpa var. laevicarpa . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 17 July 2020.
  3. Hartley . Thomas Gordon . A revision of the genus Flindersia (Rutaceae). . Journal of the Arnold Arboretum . 1969 . 50 . 4 . 490–493 . 17 July 2020.
  4. Web site: Flindersia laevicarpa. APNI. 17 July 2020.
  5. Web site: Flindersia laevicarpavar. laevicarpa . Australian Plant Census . 17 July 2020.