Callerya australis 

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  >  Callerya

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:                Native wisteria

•   Also, blunt wisteria or Samson's sinew in Australia

Conservation status:  Least concern

• Listed as "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992

Etymology:   

• The specific epithet (australis) means "southern"

Flowers:                  

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• The flowers are arranged in panicles 60–260 mm long, each flower on a pedicel 3–12 mm long with narrowly triangular, thread-like or egg-shaped bracts at the base, but that fall as the flowers open

• The sepals are yellowish, 3.5–7 mm long and 5–10 mm wide

• The standard petal is more or less round, 12–15 mm long, 11–18 mm wide and mauve, purple or whitish, the wings 12–14 mm long and purple or maroon, and the keel is 12–14 mm long and purple or maroon

• Flowering occurs in winter and spring and the fruit is an oblong, woody glabrous pod 15–25 mm long

Fruit:                         

• x

Leaves:         

• The leaves are pinnate with 5 to 19 oblong, elliptic or egg-shaped leaflets, 10–86 mm long and 5–45 mm wide

• There is a silky-hairy, thread-like or triangular stipel 1–4 mm long at the base of each leaflet, but that sometimes falls as the leaf matures

• The petiole is 100–150 mm long with egg-shaped or narrowly triangular stipules at the base

• The stalk of each leaflet is 2–3 mm long

Stem & branches: 

• Stems up to 20 cm in diameter with rough, grey or cream-coloured bark

Roots:         

• x

Habit:        

• A tall, woody climber 

Habitat:   

• Grows in rainforest from sea level to an altitude of 800 m 

Distribution:                  

• North Queensland, NSW as far south as Port Macquarie, and on Norfolk Island

• It also occurs in New Guinea, New Caledonia, and the Cook, Solomon, Tuamotus and Tubuai Islands

Additional notes:     

• Austrocallerya australis, commonly known as native wisteria,,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to north-eastern Australia, New Guinea and some Pacific Islands. It is a tall, woody climber with pinnate leaves, the leaflets oblong, elliptic or egg-shaped, and panicles of purple, pea-like flowers.

• Taxonomy

  • This species was first formally described in 1833 by Stephan Endlicher who gave it the name Pterocarpus australis in his book Prodromus Florae Norfolkicae from specimens collected on Norfolk Island by Ferdinand Bauer

  • In 1994, Anne M. Schot moved the species to Callerya as Callerya australis in the journal Blumea and in 2019, James A. Compton and Brian David Schrire moved it to their new genus Austrocallerya as Austrocallerya australis, based on the plant's morphology, and nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences