Sapindaceae

Cupaniopsis parvifolia

SMALL-LEAVED TUCKEROO

Small to medium-sized tree, to 10 m high; bark greyish brown and with lighter blotches, horizontally ridged and finely longitudinally furrowed, larger trunk channelled. New growth reddish. Buds and young stems densely hairy with greyish or brownish simple hairs, stems becoming hairless and with prominent lenticels; stipules absent.

Leaves pinnately compound, alternate, 7–15 cm long; true terminal leaflet absent, rachis extending beyond the last leaflet; petiole 1–3 cm long. Leaflets 4–8, mostly alternate or sometimes ± opposite; laminas narrow-oblong to oblong-oblanceolate, usually 3–7 cm long, 1–3 cm wide, apex rounded and notched, base tapered, margins entire, surfaces hairless, upper surface green and glossy, lower surface paler and dull; pinnately veined with 10–20 pairs of lateral veins, distinct on both surfaces; domatia absent; petiolules 1–4 mm long, including a prominent basal pulvinule c. 1 mm long.

Inflorescences axillary, in upper axils and together appearing terminal, thyrsoid, 3–7 cm long. Flowers appearing bisexual but functionally unisexual and plants monoecious, whitish or greenish, 5–6 mm diam., sepals usually 5, petals usually 5, 0.5–3.5 mm long, with 2 erect scales at base; male flowers with 8, or rarely 6 or 7 stamens and a rudimentary ovary; female flowers with 6–8 staminodes and a 3-locular superior ovary.

Fruit dry, a capsule, depressed-globose to ovoid, 1–1.5 cm long, 3-lobed, orange; seed 1 per lobe, dark brown to black; aril fleshy, reddish to orange, partly to almost completely covering seed.

Illustration of leaves & fruit

Habitat and Distribution:

Common in DRf and VTs; north from Gloucester, N.S.W., to Mt Morgan (S of Rockhampton), Qld, also in N Qld from Elphinstone area (W of Mackay), to near Bowen, and Undara N.P. (SW of Cairns)

Notes:

Similar to Cupaniopsis anacardioides but leaflets, petiolules and fruit smaller; also compare petiolule length with Cupaniopsis simulata .

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