Flindersia laevicarpa

Flindersia laevicarpa, commonly known in Australia as rose ash, scented maple or dirran maple, is a species of medium-sized to large tree in the family Rutaceae and is native to Papua New Guinea, West Papua and Queensland. It has pinnate leaves with four to eight egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets, panicles of cream-coloured, yellowish, red or purple flowers and smooth woody fruit that split into five at maturity, releasing winged seeds.

Description

Flindersia laevicarpa is a tree that grows to a height of Template:Cvt. It has pinnate leaves Template:Cvt long with four to eight egg-shaped leaflets Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide on petiolules Template:Cvt long. The flowers are arranged in panicles Template:Cvt long, the sepals about Template:Cvt long and the petals cream-coloured, yellowish, red or purple and Template:Cvt long. Flowering occurs from January to July and the fruit is a smooth, woody capsule Template:Cvt long that splits into five, releasing seeds that are Template:Cvt long.

Taxonomy

Flindersia laevicarpa was first formally described in 1920 by Cyril Tenison White and William Douglas Francis in the Botany Bulletin of the Queensland Department of Agriculture.

In 1969, Thomas Hartley described two varieties and the name of the autonym is accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Flindersia laevicarpa var. heterophylla (originally described as Flindersia heterophylla by Merrill and Perry) has leaves usually shorter than Template:Cvt, usually with two to four leaflets and a capsule Template:Cvt long;
• Flindersia laevicarpa var. laevicarpa has leaves Template:Cvt, usually with four to eight leaflets and a capsule Template:Cvt long.

Distribution and habitat

Variety laevicarpa grows in rainforest at altitudes of between Template:Cvt and occurs from near the Daintree River to Gadgarra in far north Queensland. Variety heterophylla is found from sea level to an altitude of about Template:Cvt between Misool Island in West Papua to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea.