Dillenia alata – Red Beech or Golden Guinea Tree
Author: Lawrie Smith
Published: Journal December 2020
Image above: Fruit of Dillenia alata. Photo Garry Sankowsky
Pronounced: dill-EEN-ee-a a-LAR-ta
Family: Dilleniaceae
Derivation: Dillenia…after John James Dillenius (1687 – 1747), German botanist who spent the last 25 years of his life in Oxford and London. Linnaeus commemorated him with the genus Dillenia.
alata…. bearing a flattened, wing-like structure, referring to the winged petioles of the leaf stalk.
Dillenia alata is a very attractive tree from the wet tropic rainforests of Queensland, coastal islands and Cape York. Also found in the Northern Territory and New Guinea. Virtually all parts of this plant are physically distinctive and it is difficult to walk past a specimen without stopping to admire its attractive and unique characteristics. The common names are very appropriate and descriptive.
In the Daintree, its natural rainforest environment, it is impossible to miss the often gnarled and twisted trunks and branches, highlighted and textured by the fine almost translucent sheets of red tissue bark in flaky patterns. When illuminated by a shaft of sun the edges of the red flakes glow against the rich deep mahogany tones of the trunk.
Closeup of flower of Dillenia alata Photo Lawrie Smith
Looking up into the canopy the large emerald green glossy leaves up to 20cm x 10cm, also glow against the sun in a dramatic lime green with dark green veins, in contrast with the maroon branches. New leaves continue the colour scheme by emerging in a reddish brown.
Sprinkled over the leaf canopy are large brilliant yellow five petal flowers up to 7cm diameter, similar to Hibbertia scandens which are in the same family. Pink and red styles, anthers and staminodes are clustered centrally as a distinctive focus. Although the flowers last only one day, they are replaced daily over a period of two months in late spring and summer.
The show continues with the development of green fruits which open to reveal a rosette of seven capsules about the same size as the flowers, with distinctive bright red inside surface and black seeds nearly covered by a white aril. Yet another attractive feature of the plant which compliments the flowers, the dense green foliage and bark.
Without question Dillenia alata which varies from 6 metres to 10 metres in height, sometimes smaller, is one of the more spectacular small trees of the north Queensland rainforest. It grows from sea level to 600m and most abundantly in the tropical coastal lowlands often in swampy sandy depressions. Although it prefers a sandy moist soil, once established it has proven suitable for cultivation in other soils and will tolerate limited periods of dryness. It is frost tender away from the tropics but specimens are known to perform well in more protected gardens south to Brisbane.
In Cairns, Townsville and other northern towns Red Beech is commonly used in urban landscape particularly along foreshores and esplanades, taking advantage of its long term aesthetic attraction as an individual specimen and suitability as a street tree. This really is a ‘must have’ species for inclusion in most
gardens.
Flower of Dillenia alata. Photo Garry Sankowsky
Flaky bark of Dillenia alata. Photo Lawrie Smith