Flindersia oppositifolia, commonly known as mountain silkwood,[1] is a species of tree that is endemic to the Bellenden Ker Range in northern Queensland. It has simple leaves arranged more or less in opposite pairs, dark reddish flowers arranged in panicles, and fruit studded with short, rough points.
Flindersia oppositifolia is a tree that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are simple, arranged more or less in opposite pairs, egg-shaped to elliptical, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in panicles long and have five sepals long and five dark reddish petals long. Flowering occurs from October to November and the fruit is a woody capsule long studded with short, rough points, and separating into five at maturity, releasing winged seeds long.[2] [3]
Mountain silkwood was first formally described in 1892 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Hypsophila oppositifolia and published the description in The Victorian Naturalist from material collected on Mount Bartle Frere.[4] [5] In 1982, Thomas Hartley and Laurence Jessup changed the name to Flindersia oppositifolia in the journal Brunonia.[6]
Mountain silkwood grows in rainforest at altitudes of and is only known from the Bellenden Ker Range in north Queensland.
Flindersia oppositifolia is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.