Fagraea Fagraeacea

''Fagraea fagraeacea'', commonly known as yellowheart or pink jitta, is a plant in the gentian family Gentianaceae which is native to New Guinea and Queensland.

Description

Yellowheart is a shrub or small tree that will grow to between high. The trunk has a plaited appearance and may be buttressed. The simple leaves are held on petioles up to long, the blades are usually elliptic, but may be ovate or obovate. They measure up to long and wide, are somewhat rounded at the base ( cuneate) and have a narrow elongated "drip tip" (acuminate). The lateral veins are usually indistinct.

The inflorescence is a panicle produced at the end of the branches with 15 to 30 flowers, or sometimes more. The fragrant tubular flowers have a green calyx about long, 5 white or cream petals fused into a tube about long, and lobes about long. The stamens are inserted in the upper half of the tube, the style is about long.

The white, cream or pink fruit is, botanical terms, a berry measuring about long by wide, containing several brown seeds in a white pulp.

Taxonomy

''Fagraea fagraeacea'' was originally described as ''Gardneria fagraeacea'' by the Victorian government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, and published in 1868 in his massive work '' Fragmenta phytographiæ Australiæ''. Mueller based his description on material from Rockingham Bay in north Queensland (''In silvis ad sinum Rockingham's Bay''), which was provided to him by the plant collector John Dallachy.

In 1916 the English botanist George Claridge Druce reviewed a large number of newly named Australian and African plants that he considered had not been named in accordance with the rules of botanical nomenclature that existed at the time. As a result of this work he gave this species the new combination ''Fagraea fagraeacea'', which was published in the 1916 report to the ''Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles'' in 1917.

Distribution and habitat

The natural range of this species is coastal and sub-coastal ranges of northeast Queensland, from around Rossville south to Paluma. It inhabits well developed rainforest often on granite substrates, at altitudes from about to .

Endemicity

Both Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants and Flora of Australia treats ''Fagraea fagraeacea'' as endemic to Queensland, however, there is also a single collection of this species from Normanby Island in Papua New Guinea. The collection was made in 1977 but wasn't identified until 1992.

Conservation

This species is listed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science as least concern. , it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Ecology

The fruit of this species is eaten by golden bowerbirds (''Prionodura newtoniana'') and spotted catbirds (''Ailuroedus maculosus''). Eastern whipbirds (''Psophodes olivaceus''), which are insectivores, have been observed inspecting the fruit of the yellowheart and eating what was presumed to be insect larvae that it found inside them.

Gallery

File:Fagraea fagraeacea ALA-5.jpg, Herbarum specimen
File:Fagraea-fagraeacea-ALA-2.jpg, Flowers
File:Fagraea fagraeacea ALA-4.jpg, X-ray of leaf
File:Fagraea-fagraeacea-ALA-3.jpg, Flowers and foliage
File:Fagraea-cambagei-SF22234-02.jpg, Trunk of ''F. cambagei'', which has a similar plaited appearance to ''F. fagraeacea''

References

External links

View a map
of historical sightings of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium

View observations
of this species on iNaturalist

View images
of this species on Flickriver

{{Taxonbar , from=Q65938664

fagraeacea
Endemic flora of Queensland
Taxa named by George Claridge Druce
Plants described in 1917