Meliaceae

Owenia venosa

CROW’S APPLE, ROSE ALMOND, ROSE APPLE

Small to medium-sized tree to 20 m high, branchlets spreading or erect, rarely suckering from roots; bark greyish, scaly. Foliage dark green. Buds and young stems hairless and resinous, on older stems the resin dries and becomes whitish and flaky; stipules absent.

Leaves pinnately compound, alternate, 15–18 cm long, terminal leaflet absent; rachis and upper part of petiole usually winged in juvenile leaves; petiole 4–8 cm long. Leaflets usually 6–10, or rarely up to 14, opposite; laminas oblong-elliptic to oblong-obovate, 2.5–10 cm long, 1.3–3 cm wide, often unequally-sided, apex blunt or finely notched, base tapered to rounded and often asymmetric, margins entire, leathery, surfaces hairless; pinnately veined with 10–15 pairs of lateral veins, distinct but faint on upper surface, distinct on lower surface; lateral petiolules 0–1 mm long.

Inflorescences axillary, thyrses, 6–16.5 cm long; pedicels c. 1 mm long. Flowers apparently bisexual but functionally unisexual with rudiments of opposite sex and plants dioecious, actinomorphic, 5-merous; sepals free and c. 2 mm long; petals 5, 4–5 mm long, cream to greenish; stamens 8–10, filaments fused into a tube, anthers sessile and inserted near apex of tube; ovary superior, 4-locular, each loculus with 1 ovule.

Fruit fleshy, a drupe, globose, 2–3 cm long, red; stone solitary, 2–4-seeded.

Illustration of leaves & fruit

Habitat and Distribution:

In DRf and VTs; north from the Boonah district, Qld, to Marlborough, N of Rockhampton, Qld, and west to the Taroom district (Expedition N.P.), Qld.

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