Sapindaceae

Jagera pseudorhus var. pseudorhus

FOAMBARK TREE, PINK FOAMBARK

Small or medium-sized tree to 25 cm high, rarely a large tree and more than 25 m high, larger trunks sometimes fluted; bark dark grey with lighter grey blotches, smooth, with horizontal ridges. Buds and stems densely hairy with soft brown simple hairs, stems remaining hairy, longitudinally ribbed; leaves often clustered towards end of stems, but not arranged in pseudo-whorls;  stipules absent.

Leaves pinnately compound with sapling leaves often partly bipinnate, alternate, 20–45 cm long; rachis and secondary rachises hairy; pinnate leaves without a true terminal leaflet and rachis tip projecting beyond last leaflet; bipinnate leaves with secondary rachises sometimes winged and with a true terminal leaflet; petiole 5–21 cm long, hairy. Leaflets 8–20 (rarely to 24), opposite to sub-opposite or alternate; laminas ± lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, usually 2–6 cm long and 0.5–2 cm wide, apex acute, base cuneate to rounded and often asymmetric, margins regularly or irregularly toothed to ± entire, upper surface dark green, slightly glossy and ± sparsely hairy, hairs often very short and scattered and leaflets appear hairless, lower surface paler green and dull, sparsely hairy with soft fawn to colourless hairs; pinnately veined with 8–12 pairs of lateral veins, distinct on both surfaces; petiolules 1–15 mm long.

Inflorescences axillary, thyrsoid, 4–26 cm long. Flowers functionally unisexual and plants monoecious, actinomorphic, 4–6 mm diam., whitish yellow or pinkish red, calyx shortly 5-lobed, petals 5, c. 3 mm long and with 2 erect scales at base; male flowers with usually 8 stamens and a rudimentary ovary; female flowers with usually 8 staminodes and a 3-locular superior ovary, densely hairy.

Fruit becoming dry, a capsule, broadly ovoid, 1.4–1.8 cm long, velvety red to yellow or yellowish brown, covered with stiff brownish irritating hairs, opening in 3 thick-walled valves; seed 1 per lobe, black or dark brown and with a basal yellow to orange aril.

Illustration of leaves & fruit

Habitat and Distribution:

In STRf, DRf and LRf; north from Seal Rocks, N.S.W., to Cape York, N Qld; also in New Guinea.

Notes:

Only the type variety grows in the area covered by this treatment. Jagera pseudorhus var. integerrima occurs in N Qld from Millaa Millaa on the Atherton Tableland to Windsor Tableland. It differs in that the margins of the leaflets are always entire.

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