Species profile—Fontainea venosa
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Euphorbiaceae → Fontainea venosa
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Euphorbiaceae
- Scientific name
- Fontainea venosa Jessup & Guymer
- WildNet taxon ID
- 11304
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Vulnerable
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 391890 (Holotype), 391891 (Isotype), status annotated by author
- Description
- Fontainea venosa is a shrub or tree growing to 18 m tall. The leaves are obovate to oblanceolate, mostly rounded at the apex, subcoriaceous. The lamina is 2.5 to 14 cm long by 1.2 to 5.5 cm wide and glabrous. The venation of the leaves is conspicuous. At the base of each leaf is a pair of glands with raised edges. The petiole is slightly swollen at the base, shallowly channelled or flat above, 3 to 13 mm long. The white, perfumed male and female flowers grow on separate trees. The male flowers are terminal, botryoid, sometimes reduced. The calyx of the male flowers has three to five lobes, which are pubescent on the outside and glabrous on the inside. Male flowers usually have 20 to 24 stamens, a disc 0.7 mm high and four to six petals. The male flowers petals are pubescent, ovate in shape and measure 3.5 to 4.5 mm long by 2.5 to 3 mm wide. Female flowers are terminal, occurring in clusters of 1 to 4 flowers. Each flower has a disc 0.7 mm high, five styles 0.5 mm long and a large glabrous ovary. The fruit are almost globular, 2 to 2.6 cm long by 1.7 to 2.6 cm wide, firm-fleshy and yellow-orange in colour. The endocarp is 1.5 to 2.4 cm long and 1.2 to 1.7 cm wide, with 3 to 4 ridges at the sutures; the intersutural faces are smooth with scattered vascular foramina (Jessup and Guymer, 1985; Borsboom and Wang, 1997; DSEWPC, 2012).
The species differs from F. pancheri by its subglobular or obtusely 4 or 5 angled endocarp and few scattered foramina. It differs from all other species by the glabrous ovary (Jessup and Guymer, 1985). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Fontainea venosa occurs south west of Beenleigh near Brisbane, along the Koolkooroon Creek in the Boyne Valley, and near Littlemore, in Queensland. The species is located within Dawes National Park State and Marys Creek State Forest (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -24.4067536, 151.1853212
-27.8289723, 153.2038334 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Fontainea venosa occurs in notophyll vine forest and vine thicket with a mean annual rainfall of 1000-1100 mm on soils derived from and containing abundant andesitic rocks, often on rocky outcrops or along creeks. Associated species include Backhousia citriodora, Actephila lindleyi, Bosistoa medicinalis, Diospyros fasciculosa, Barkly syringifolia, Araucaria cunninghamii, Owenia venosa, Aphananthe philippinensis, Argyrodendron trifoliolatum, Croton acronychioides, Pentaceras australe and Planchonella myrsinoides (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Reproduction
- Flowering of Fontainea venosa has been recorded in January, February, April, May, June, August and October, fruiting in January, February, March, April, June, July, August, September, October and December and ripe fruit in August, September and October (Borsboom and Wang, 1997; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- Threatening processes to Fontainea venosa include the destruction of habitat by clearing for urban development at sites near Bahr's Scrub, Beenleigh. The main potential threats to Fontainea venosa include stochastic events due to restricted and fragmented distribution, changed fire regimes and invasion by exotic weeds (Borsboom and Wang, 1997; DSEWPC, 2012).
- Status notes
- Fontainea venosa is listed as Vulnerable under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 and Vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
- Management documents
- Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2012). Fontainea venosa in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat. Accessed Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:48:44 +1100.
- Management recommendations
- DSEWPC (2012) documents regional and local priority actions to support the recovery of Fontainea venosa. A summary of these include: avoid habitat loss, disturbance and modification (e.g. monitor known populations, control access routes, minimise land use impacts); fire (develop suitable fire management strategies); control invasive weeds (identify and remove weeds in the local area, which could become a threat to F. venosa); enable recovery of additional sites and/or populations (e.g. undertake appropriate seed collection and storage (e.g. undertake appropriate seed collection and storage); and increase conservation awareness (e.g. raise awareness of F. venosa within the local community).
Other management actions include the establishment of a protective buffer (0.3 ha) that excludes clearing with all F. venosa at least 30 m inside the protective buffer (Borsboom and Wang, 1997). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Moreton, Port Curtis, Wide Bay.
- References
- Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2012). Fontainea venosa in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Accessed 16/02/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat.
Jessup, L.W. and Guymer, G.P. (1985). A revision of Fontainea Heckel (Euphorbiaceae-Cluytieae). Austrobaileya 2 (2):122.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 17/02/2012. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (16/02/2012)
Other resources
- Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT)
- The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
- Atlas of Living Australia
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=11304.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
