Steganthera macooraia 

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Beech Sassafras

Conservation status: . . .

Etymology:   

Flowers:

• Inflorescence much shorter than the leaves

• Flowers about 3 mm diam

• Perianth lobes minute

• Receptacle hairy on the inner surface

• Stamens included in the perianth tube, filaments short

• Female flowers operculate

• Carpels variable in number, about 10-24

Fruit:                            

• Receptacle yellowish-green

• Fruiting carpels ovoid, glabrous, about 15-18 x 8-9 mm

• Seeds about 13 x 7-8 mm

• Embryo small, about 5-6 mm long, cotyledons wider than the radicle

Leaves:         

• Oak grain in the twigs. Leaf blades about 4-10 x 1.8-4.5 cm

• Lateral veins forming loops well inside the blade margin

• Leaf blade much paler on the underside

• Oil dots visible with a lens

Stem & branches: 

• Seldom exceeding 30 cm dbh

• Oak grain in the wood and a corresponding pattern in the inner blaze

Roots:         

Habit:        

Habitat:   

• Altitudinal range from 650-1500 m

• Grows as an understory tree in upland and mountain rain forest

• Often found in stunted windswept rain forest on the highest mountain ridges

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to NEQ

Additional notes:  

• Seedlings

  • Cotyledons ovate or lanceolate, 25-34 x 10-19 mm, apex apiculate, base rounded or truncate

  • At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic to obovate, apex acute, acuminate to apiculate, base cuneate to attenuate, margin with teeth concentrated in the apical half, 1-5 teeth on either side, glabrous; petiole grooved on the upper surface

  • Midrib raised on the upper surface. Seed germination time 49 to 120 days

• Synonyms

  • Wilkiea macooraia (Bailey) Perkins, Das Pflanzenreich Heft 49 : 26(1911)

  • Mollinedia macooraia F.M.Bailey, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Botany Bulletin 5: 23(1892), Type: Bellenden-Ker Range up to the summit of the South Peak, 5,000 ft. [ s.n., Bellenden Ker Exp. 1889. fide A.K.Endress (1979); H

Sources of information:

• https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/steganthera_macooraia.htm (2024)