Sapindaceae

Arytera microphylla

SMALL-LEAVED COOGERA

Shrub or small tree to 10 m high, slightly flanged at base; bark greyish, smooth, becoming flaky. New growth pinkish red. Buds finely hairy with pale brownish simple hairs, stems soon becoming hairless; stipules absent.

Leaves pinnately compound and usually bifoliolate, alternate, 2–5.6 cm long, terminal leaflet absent, rachis extended beyond last pair of leaflets, extension usually visible on new growth; petiole 0.2–2 cm long. Leaflets 2 or rarely 3 or 4, opposite; laminas broad-elliptic to obovate, 2–5 cm long, 0.8–3 cm wide, apex obtuse, base cuneate to rounded and sometimes asymmetric, margins entire or with a few irregular minute teeth towards apex, surfaces hairless; pinnately veined with 8–12 pairs of lateral veins, distinct on both surfaces, minor veins faint to distinct; domatia absent; petiolules 1–2 mm long.

Inflorescences axillary, thyrses, 2.5–8 cm long; peduncles sparsely hairy. Flowers functionally unisexual and plants monoecious, white, 2–3 mm diam., calyx shallowly lobed, c. 1 mm long, petals 5, and with 2 erect scales at base; male flowers with 6–8 stamens and a rudimentary ovary; female flowers with staminodes and a superior ovary of 2 or 3 fused carpels.

Fruit dry, a capsule, obcordate and compressed laterally, 6–8 mm long, usually with 2 spreading lobes, yellow, hairy inside; seeds 1 per lobe, black; aril red, fleshy, almost completely covering seed.

Illustration of leaves & fruit

Habitat and Distribution:

In DRf; north from Yarraman, Qld, to the Bundaberg district, Qld.

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