Sapindaceae

Alectryon connatus

GREY BIRDSEYE

Small tree to 12 m high; bark grey, scaly. Buds and young stems tomentose with yellow to pale brownish crinkly hairs, stems becoming hairless; stipules absent.

Leaves pinnately compound, alternate, 8–16 cm long, terminal leaflet absent, rachis projecting beyond last leaflet, rachis slightly flattened near base; petiole 2–5 cm long. Leaflets 2–6 (usually 4), alternate or opposite; laminas oblong-elliptic to ovate or rarely obovate, 4.5–11.5 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, apex rounded and slightly notched, base rounded to tapered and often asymmetric, margins entire and sometimes revolute, upper surface glossy and hairless, lower surface pale and often glaucous; pinnately veined with 7–10 pairs of lateral veins, distinct to prominent but scarcely impressed on upper surfaces, raised and prominent on lower surface, sparse hairs along midvein and lateral veins; domatia absent; petiolules 1–3 mm long.

Inflorescences axillary, in upper axils and together appearing terminal, thyrsoid, 4.5–18 cm long; peduncles hairy. Flowers functionally unisexual and plants monoecious, white to pinkish, 2–4 mm diam., calyx shallowly lobed, c. 1.5 mm long, petals usually 5, 1–3 mm long, with bilobed scale at base; male flowers with 7 or 8 stamens and a rudimentary ovary; female flowers with staminodes and a superior ovary of 2–4 fused carpels.

Fruit dry, a capsule, depressed-globose to ovoid, 1.2–1.7 cm long, commonly 3- or 4-lobed, lobes rounded, at first green, becoming yellow or reddish; seed 1 per lobe, black; aril red, fleshy and smooth, completely or partly covering seed.

Illustration of leaves & fruit

Habitat and Distribution:

In LRf, DRf and VTs; north from the McPherson Range, Qld, to Iron Range (Cape York Peninsula), N Qld, and west to Carnarvon N.P., Qld; also New Guinea.

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