Harpullia frutescens explained

Harpullia frutescens, commonly known as dwarf harpullia,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, and is endemic to North Queensland. It is a shrub with paripinnate leaves with 6 to 8 leaflets, white flowers with a pink tinge, and crimson capsules containing 2 seeds with a yellow aril.

Description

Harpullia frutescens is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to, its young growth covered with downy hairs. Its leaves are paripinnate, long with 6 to 8 elliptic to lance shaped leaflets sometimes tapering to a point, long and wide on a winged petiole long. The flowers are strongly perfumed, borne in clusters of mostly 2 to 4 in upper leaf axils long, each flower on a slender, hairy peduncle up to long. The sepals are long and covered with downy hairs, the petals are white with a pink tinge, and long. There are 5 or 6 stamens, and the ovary covered with woolly hairs. The fruit is a laterally compressed, crimson capsule about long containing two shiny seeds, enclosed in a yellow, cup-shaped aril.[2] [3]

Taxonomy

Harpullia frutescens was first formally described in 1889 by Frederick Manson Bailey in a report on the Government Scientific Expedition to the Bellenden-Ker Range.[4] [5] The specific epithet (frutescens) means "becoming bushy".[6]

Distribution and habitat

Dwarf harpullia is common in rainforest from Ayton to the Atherton Tableland area in North Queensland, usually in hilly country.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Reynolds . Sally T. . Harpullia frutescens . Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. . 14 July 2024.
  2. Reynolds . Sally T. . Notes on Sapindaceae in Australia, I. . Austrobaileya . 1981 . 1 . 4 . 415 . 14 July 2024.
  3. Web site: Harpullia frutescens . Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants . 14 July 2024.
  4. Web site: Harpullia frutescens. APNI. 14 July 2024.
  5. Bailey . Frederick M. . Report of the government scientific expedition to the Bellenden- Ker range upon the flora and fauna of that part of the colony . Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly during the Session of 1889 . 1889 . 36 . 14 July 2024.
  6. Book: George . Alex . Sharr . Francis . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2021 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 202 . 4th.
  7. Book: Elliot . Rodger W. . Jones . David L. . Blake . Trevor . Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation: Vol. 5. 1990. 254–55 . Lothian Press . Port Melbourne . 0-85091-285-7.