Skip links and keyboard navigation

Species profile—Rhodamnia angustifolia (narrow-leaved malletwood)

Classification

Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → MyrtaceaeRhodamnia angustifolia (narrow-leaved malletwood)

Sighting data

Download
KML | CSV | GeoJson

Species details

Kingdom
Plantae (plants)
Class
Equisetopsida (land plants)
Family
Myrtaceae
Scientific name
Rhodamnia angustifolia N.Snow & Guymer
Common name
narrow-leaved malletwood
WildNet taxon ID
22496
Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
CR
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
Critically endangered
Conservation significant
Yes
Confidential
No
Endemicity
Native
Pest status
Nil
Short Notes
status annotated by author
Description
Rhodamnia angustifolia is a single or multi-stemmed tree from 4 to 10 m tall. The bark of the main trunk is smooth but furrowed and somewhat flaking in small angular patches. The leaves are discolorous and are trinerved, mostly narrowly elliptic but occasionally narrowly obovate or falcate, 20 to 70 (-85)mm long by (3-)5 to 12 (-15)mm wide, they are cuneate at the base and obtuse to acute at the apex with flat margins. The adaxial surface is sparsely sericeous becoming glabrous with the oil glands scattered to dense, but usually invisible to the naked eye. The abaxial surface is very shortly and densely tomentose, the lateral, tertiary and intramarginal veins usually prominent. The petioles are 2.5 to 4 mm long and are channelled. The inflorescence is a cluster of 2 to 7 flowers on short shoots less than 1 mm long in the axils of the leaves or leaf scars. The peduncles are rigid and up to 1.5 mm long and shortly sericeous. There are 4 sepals which are distinct in bud, the lobes are free, 0.3 to 0.5 mm long, broadly ovate with the apex rounded to obtuse, sparsely short sericeous above and below, persistent on the fruit. There are 4 petals, alternating with the sepals, yellowish-white in colour and about 2.5 mm long by 3 mm wide, broadly ovate to oblate with a rounded apex, glabrous below. There are 65 to 75 multiseriate stamens, folded centrewards in bud, the filaments 2 to 4 mm long. The style is 4.5 to 5 mm long and is mostly straight. The fruit is a berry that is sub-globose to globose, rounded at the base, 3 to 5 mm long by 4 to 6 mm wide, glabrous or glabrescent, yellowish orange with some red when fresh but increasingly red upon drying. The fruit has 1 or 2 (-4) seeds that are globose to suborbicular to somewhat reniform, smooth and light brown in colour.
With its shortly and densely tomentose lower leaf surfaces and sparse to dense oil glands in the leaves, R. angustifolia shows affinities with R. dumicola, R. whiteana and R. ostata. However its narrowly elliptic leaves immediately distinguish it from these species. (Snow and Guymer, 1999).
Map
View Map
Distribution
Occurs at the head of Cedar Creek along a single ridgetop and subtending slopes in the Wietalaba National Park (previously State Forest 583), 45 km south of Gladstone (Queensland Herbarium 2012).
Distributional limits
-23.8957273, 151.2122222
-24.2883334, 151.2575644
Range derivation
Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
Habitat
The species grows in microphyll vineforest with Backhousia subargentea, Barklya syringifolia, Archidendropsis thozetiana, Backhousia kingii, Sterculia quadrifida, Mallotus philippensis, Croton stigmatosus and Araucaria cunninghamii as the dominant tree species. The substrate is reddish or brown loam from mudstones of Muncon volcanics. The elevation range is from 200 to 560 metres (Snow and Guymer, 1999)
Reproduction
Flowering material is known only from the type specimen, collected in November, but given the apparently good condition of abundant young bud material, flowering almost certainly extends into December. Fruiting period confirmed only for January by a single specimen, but likely to begin as early as late November or early December. (Snow and Guymer, 1999)
Threatening processes
The species is threatened by weeds and by the recently introduced alien pathogen myrtle rust (Puccinia psidii). Plants of this species in cultivation in Brisbane are known to be highly susceptible to myrtle rust infection.
Status notes
Rhodamnia angustifolia is listed as Endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992
References
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 14/02/2012.
Snow, N. and Guymer, G.P. (1999). Austrobaileya 5 (3): 421-426.
Profile author
Ronald Booth (09/07/2012)

Other resources

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=22496.

This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.

More species information

Get a list of species for your area or find other wildlife information.

Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Last updated
20 May 2024