Species profile—Hydriastele costata

Classification

Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Arecaceae (palm) → Hydriastele costata

Species details

Kingdom

Plantae (plants)

Class

Equisetopsida (land plants)

Family

Arecaceae (palm)

Scientific name

Hydriastele costata F.M.Bailey

WildNet taxon ID

29580

Alternate name(s)

gulubia palm

Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status

Vulnerable

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status

Vulnerable

Conservation significant

Yes

Confidential

Yes

Endemicity

Native

Pest status

Nil

Description

Hydriastele costata is a solitary palm growing to 35 m tall, with a trunk to 40 cm in diameter that is expanded at the base, smooth and grey. The trunk has leaf scars to 35mm wide and the internodes are up to 25 cm long. There are usually 10 to 15 leaves each to 4m long, held out straight but the lower ones tend to droop; with 80 to 120 pinnae each side of the rachis. The crownshaft, grows to 1.5 m long and is light green suffused with lilac, with a dense grey tomentum. The petiole is 15 to 40 cm long, the rachis is up to 3.5 cm long. The pinnae are laxly pendulous, green on both surfaces and acuminate.
The inflorescence grows to 125 cm long and 40 cm wide. The flowers are white and are in threes, 1 to 2 male. The male flowers are 10 mm long and 5mm diameter in bud, not opening widely. The sepals are 1 to 1.5 mm by 1 to 1.5 mm and are green; the petals are 9 to 10 mm by 3.5 mm and are cream; the stamens are 6 to 24 and are 5 to 7mm long; the filaments are 0.5mm long; the anthers are 2 to 3 mm long and are bright yellow. The female flowers are 1.5 to 3 mm by 2 to 3 mm in bud; the sepals are 0.2 to 0.5 by 0.5mm and are light green; the petals are 2 to 2.5 mm by 2 to 2.5 mm and are cream-green; the stigmas are 0.2 mm long. The fruit is ovoid, 10 mm long by 5 mm diameter, and is longitudinally ridged, smooth, blue-grey to deep maroon with broad cream to pink longitudinal markings. The fibers are dense and thick. The seed is ovoid, 4 mm long by 4 mm diameter (Hyland, 2010; Dowe, 2011).
Hydriastele costata is distinguished from other species of Hydriastele by the solitary habit, regularly arranged, pendulous pinnae, the straight leaves and fruit to 10 mm long (Hyland, 2010).

Map

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Habitat

Hydriastele costata grows along the banks of rivers, streams, creeks and gullies in monsoon forests, and on grass-covered floodplains. It occurs on various soil types at sea level (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).

Reproduction

Hydriastele costata flowers July-October, and fruits September-January (Dowe and Jones, 2011; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).

Threatening processes

Potential threating processes are feral pigs that impact on the habitat of the species and weeds. (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).

Status notes

Hydriastele costata is listed as Vulnerable under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 and Vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

References

Dowe, J.L. and Jones, D.L. in Wilson, A.J.G. (Ed) (2011). Flora of Australia 39: 206.
Hyland, B.P.M, Whiffin, T. and Zich, F. (2010). Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Factsheet, CSIRO .
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 20/01/2012.

Profile author

Ronald Booth (08/05/2012)

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=29580.

This information is sourced from the WildNet platform managed by the Queensland Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation.