''Baloghia marmorata'' is a rare rainforest plant of eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is commonly known as the marbled baloghia.

Distribution

Occurring in a few places in the

Big Scrub The Big Scrub was one of the largest areas (75,000 ha) of lowland subtropical rainforest in eastern Australia. It was intensively cleared for agricultural use in the 19th century (1801–1900) by settlers. By the late 19th century less than 1 ...

, such as

Victoria Park Nature Reserve The Victoria Park Nature Reserve is a state park, protected nature reserve that is located in the Northern Rivers region in the state of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The sub-tropical jungle remnant is located an undulating high rainfal ...

and

Davis Scrub Nature Reserve The Davis Scrub Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve that is located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. The reserve is a sub tropical rainforest remnant of the Big Scrub and is situated at above sea level on an ...

, and as far north as

Gympie Gympie ( ) is a city and a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. Located in the Greater Sunshine Coast, Gympie is about north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city lies on the Mary River ( ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, the habitat is subtropical rainforest at low altitude on red brown basaltic soils, with a high rainfall.

Description

A small tree reaching 8 metres in height and a trunk diameter of 8 cm. The trunk is usually straight with fairly smooth bark, creamy and green with some brown vertical streaks. Small branches are smooth and slender, green near the leaves. Leaves are alternate on the stem, not toothed,

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

to reverse ovate in shape, glossy green, 8 to 15 cm long, and 2 to 5 cm wide. A pair of glands occurs on the edge of the leaf, about 5 mm from where the stalk joins the leaf. Leaf stalks are 2 to 4 cm long, with a grooved channel on the upper side. Creamy flowers occur in the months of July to September. Male and female flowers form on separate

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s. The fruit matures from August to October, being a fawn capsule around 2 cm in diameter, which is three or four-celled with a single round seed about 1.5 cm long. It is coloured dark red with cream spots, giving a ''marbled'' appearance. Regeneration from seed is not well known; however, cuttings strike well.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4852466 Codiaeae Malpighiales of Australia Trees of Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Vulnerable flora of Australia Vulnerable biota of Queensland