Rutaceae

Flindersia collina

LEOPARD ASH

Small to medium-sized tree to 25 m high; bark mottled yellowish and grey-green, shedding in oval flakes but not fissured. New growth reddish. Buds densely hairy with simple, clustered and star hairs (sometimes appearing scale-like, but rays divided to more than halfway), stems at first densely to sparsely hairy, becoming hairless; stipules absent.

Leaves pinnately compound with a terminal leaflet, opposite, sub-opposite or occasionally alternate, 8–20 cm long, terminal leaflet ± sessile; rachis of juvenile leaves usually narrowly winged; petiole 2–5 cm long, sometimes winged especially in juvenile leaves. Leaflets 5, or sometimes 3 or 7; laminas elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate, 2–8 cm long, 1–4.5 cm wide, apex obtuse to truncate or emarginate, base tapered, margin entire, tough and leathery, rather thick, surfaces hairless, upper surface green and glossy, lower surface paler green and dull; pinnately veined with 10–20 pairs of lateral veins, distinct on both surfaces; oil dots medium-sized, scattered, distinct in young leaves, faint in older leaves and more distinct on the lower surface; leaves aromatic when crushed; lateral petiolules ± absent, terminal petiolule 0–3 mm long.

Inflorescences terminal, panicles, spreading, to 17 cm long. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous; sepals 5, ± free, c. 1 mm long, hairy; petals 4–5 mm long, white to cream or yellowish; stamens 5, alternating with 5 staminodes; ovary superior, of 5 fused carpels, 5-locular.

Fruit dry, a capsule, 2.8–5 cm long, woody, ellipsoid to ovoid, ± lobed, separating into 5 boat-shaped valves; seeds 2–6 per loculus, 1.5–2.5 cm long, winged at both ends.

Illustration of leaves & fruit

Habitat and Distribution:

In DRf and VTs; north from Toonumbar (Upper Richmond River), N.S.W., to Bathurst Bay, N Qld, and west to Carnarvon N.P., Qld.

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