Species profile—Fontainea fugax
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Euphorbiaceae → Fontainea fugax
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Euphorbiaceae
- Scientific name
- Fontainea fugax P.I.Forst.
- WildNet taxon ID
- 2296
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Endangered
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- three sheets plus spirit
- Description
- Fontainea fugax is a shrub growing to 4 m high. The stems have clear exudate. The new shoots have sparse, antrorse uncoloured trichomes. Stipules are absent. The leaves are petiolate and discolorous with sparse, antrorse uncoloured trichomes. The leaves are petiolate and discolorous. The petioles are 2 to 4 mm long by 1mm in diameter, uniform in thickness and glabrous. The lamina is elliptic, obovate or oblanceolate, 15 to 75 mm long and 6 to 42 mm wide, and chartaceous. The upper lamina surface is dark green, and the lower surface is pale green. The lamina venation comprises 6 to 10 lateral veins and reticulate interlateral veins. The tip is acute to obtuse and the base is cuneate. The lamina glands are elliptic, sessile and 1 to 2 mm long.
The male inflorescence is terminal or axillary, with sparse trichomes. The male flowers are 4 to 5 mm long and 6 to 8 mm diameter. The pedicels are 2.5 to 5 mm long, with sparse trichomes. The disk is irregularly crenate, 0.4 to 0.8 mm long and 2 to 3 mm in diameter, and glabrous. The female flowers have not been seen. Intact fruits have not been seen. The sarcocarp has sparse trichomes. The endocarp is beaked for 1 to 1.7 mm at the tip. The intersutural faces are weakly rugose, maybe flat to slightly convex, 15 to 17 mm long, 8 to 9.5 mm wide (Forster, 1997).
Fontainea fugax is closely allied to F. rostrata, however the former has swollen petiole bases, smaller male flowers (F. rostrata 4 to 6 by 11 to 13 mm), 24 stamens (F. rostrata 28 to 40), and shorter endocarp beak (F. rostrata 2 to 3 mm long) (Forster, 1997). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Known only from the Binjour-Gurgeena Plateau area between Gayndah and Mundubbera in the Burnett district of south-east Queensland (Queensland Herbarium, 2012). The species occurs in Gurgeena State Forest and Gurgeena Conservation Park.
- Distributional limits
- -25.4205805, 151.3634
-25.5101112, 151.4634389 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Plants grow as understorey shrubs in semi-evergreen vine thicket with a canopy dominated by Backhousia kingii on red euchrozem soils at altitudes between 350 and 400 m (Forster, 1997).
- Reproduction
- Flowering of Fontainea fugax has been recorded in February (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- Threatening processes include: degradation of habitat by weeds (Verbesina encelioides, Mexican daisy; Aristolochia elegans, Dutchman's pipe), inappropriate fire regime, inappropriate grazing regime, habitat disturbance by timber harvesting, and destruction of habitat by clearing (Forster 1997, Wang, 1997).
- Status notes
- Fontainea fugax is listed as Endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992.
- Management recommendations
- Management recommendations for the protection of Fontainea fugax and its habitat include: the establishment of a protective buffer of 30 m that excludes timber harvesting and clearing; where practical control or eradicate weeds on sites where F. fugax occurs; reduce the impact of grazing and protect the populations from fire (Wang, 1996).
- References
- Forster, P.I. (1997). Three new species of Fontainea Heckel (Euphorbiaceae) from Australia and Papua New Guinea. Austrobaileya 5 (1): 29-37.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 16/04/2012.
Wang, J. (1997). Fontainea fugax Species Management Profile. Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (10/07/2012)
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=2296.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
