Androcalva fraseri

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Malvales > Malvaceae > Androclava fraseri

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:               Brush Kurrajong  

• Also, Blackfellow's hemp

Conservation status:   unknown

Etymology:   

• The specific epithet honours Charles Fraser, an early NSW colonial botanist

• Vernacular names include brush kurrajong and blackfellows hemp

Flowers:                  

• Flowering peaks in September and continues till November

• The small white flowers are arranged in clusters

Fruit:                         

• Fruit is 1.5 to 2.5 cm long

Leaves:         

• Arranged alternately along the stem

• The ovate leaves have irregularly toothed margins and are 5–17 cm long and 2–7 cm wide

• The leaf undersides are whitish, and covered in a fine fur

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A common shrub or small tree 

• A shrub that typically grows to a height of 2 or 3 m 

• A small tree to 8 m high

Habitat:   

• Found in rainforest margins and in wet eucalyptus forests

• It is found in rainforest and wet eucalypt forest along and east of the Great Dividing Range in NSW and southeastern Queensland

• In the latter habitat, it is associated with trees such as rough-barked apple (Angophora floribunda), turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera), and Sydney blue gum (Eucalyptus saligna)

Distribution:                  

•  Found in eastern Australia

Additional notes:     

• A fast-growing plant, it is able to colonise disturbed ground, particularly areas where vegetation has been partly cleared such as under power lines

• It is an adult host plant for the chrysomelid beetle Podagra submetallica

• Taxonomy

  • The French naturalist Jacques Etienne Gay was the first to formally describe the species in 1823

  • He gave it the name Commersonia fraseri and published the description in the journal, Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle

  • A 2011 molecular analysis of segments of chloroplast DNA found that the genera Commersonia and Rulingia formed a monophyletic group but that the member species were intermingled, and split out into two hitherto unrecognised clades

  • In 2011, Carolyn Wilkins and Barbara Whitlock changed the name to Androcalva fraseri

Sources of information:

• (2023)