Vesselowskya rubifolia

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Fabids > Oxalidales > Cunoniaceae > Vesselowskya  rubifolia

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:       Southern marara     

• Also red ash, mountain marara or Dorrigo   

Conservation status Least concern

• 'Least concern'  but has a limited distribution

Etymology:   

• The genus is named after the Russian botanist E. Vesselowsky

• The epithet refers to the red on the leaves                      

Flowers:                  

• Male and female flowers are arranged along separate racemes 40–80 mm long 

• The female racemes elongating to 150 mm long as the fruit develops

• Each flower has three whitish sepals and three whitish petals about 1.5 mm long

• Young growth is covered with long hairs flattened against the surface

• Flowering occurs in spring

• Fruit:   

• The fruit is an oval, pale brown capsule

• About 3 mm long 

• Maturing from March to August

Leaves:         

•  Compound leaves with three or five leaflets with serrated edges

• Opposite pairs, each with three or five elliptical leaflets with sharply-pointed serrations on the edges

• The leaflets all attached to a single point on the end of the petiole

• The end leaflet is 40–120 mm long and 20–40 mm wide on a petiolule 8–11 mm long, the side leaflets 30–70 mm long and 15–25 mm wide on a petiolule 2–4 mm long

• The two basal leaflets, when present, are 5–20 mm long and 5–17 mm wide and sessile or on a petiolule up to 2 mm long

• Young growth is covered with long hairs flattened against the surface

Stem & branches: 

• Typically grows to a height of 6–8 m 

• Trunk up to 25 cm in diameter

• The bark thin and fawn brown

Habit:        

• A shrub or small tree 

Habitat:   

• Cool temperate rainforest with Antarctic Beech 

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to Australia (NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE)

• Has a restricted distribution in eastern NSW

• Occurs from Barrington Tops to north-west of Dorrigo

Additional notes:        

• Taxonomy

  • Southern marara was first formally described in 1860 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae 

  • Was given the name Geissois rubiflora, from specimens collected from Clouds Creek by Hermann Beckler

  • In 1905, Renato Pampanini changed the name to Vesselowskya rubifolia in the journal Annali di botanica

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesselowskya_rubifolia (2023)

• https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=gn&name=Vesselowskya (Feb 2004)