Species profile—Macropteranthes fitzalanii
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Combretaceae → Macropteranthes fitzalanii
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Combretaceae
- Scientific name
- Macropteranthes fitzalanii F.Muell.
- WildNet taxon ID
- 14425
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Least concern
- Conservation significant
- No
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Description
- Macropteranthes fitzalanii is a small evergreen tree growing to 15 m in height. The bark is grey and rough. The branches are erect. The branchlets are appressed pubescent when young, becoming glabrous with age. The leaves are opposite, not crowded, broadly elliptic or orbicular, retuse, rarely obtuse, usually minutely mucronate, shortly attenuate at the base and discolorous. The leaves are appressed pubescent when young becoming glabrous with age. The lamina is 1.5 to 4 cm long and 1 to 3 cm wide. The petiole is 4 to 8 mm long.
The inflorescence is usually 2-flowered, with peduncles 4 to 8 mm long. The flower bracts are orbicular, 2 to 3 mm long and deciduous. The flowers are on 4mm long pedicels. The calyx tube is glabrous with pubescent lobes up to 1 mm long. The petals are obovate, shortly acuminate, 5 to 7 mm long and pubescent. The fruit is narrowly conical or funnel shaped, crowned by enlarged calyx lobes and 1.6 to 2.5 cm long (Byrnes, 1977; Pedley, 1990).
Macropteranthes fitzalanii and M. leiocaulis have previously been confused. M. fitzalanii has a more coastal distribution and occurs in wetter vineforests. The foliage of both species is similar; however, they are radically dissimilar in both the trunk morphology (smooth, pink to whitish-green or somewhat scaly in patches when being shed, versus white persistent scaly in long strips) and floral dimensions (Forster, 1994). - Distribution
- Macropteranthes fitzalanii is restricted to the northern part of the Central Queensland Coast bioregion, particularly in the Whitsundays. The species occurs on the western slopes of Mt Dryander, north of Proserpine south to Mackay, with an occurrence at Old Raspberry Vale area, north of Rockhampton. It is also found on some islands off Proserpine. This species is locally common and often forms dominant stands. It is known from at least 15 populations. The species is recorded from the Conservation Reserve Estate in Brampton Islands, Conway, Dryander, Pioneer Peaks, South Cumberland Islands and Whitsunday Islands National Parks and Conway and Dryander State Forests (Wang, 1996; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -20.1208333, 148.525
-23.9171076, 150.9406221 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Macropteranthes fitzalanii occurs in and on the margins of coastal notophyll vine forest, microphyll vine forest, and littoral rainforest, on shallow rocky or alluvial soils. The species with which it is usually associated include; Argyrodendron trifoliatum, A. polyandrum, Araucaria cunninghamii, Graptophyllum ilicifolium, Terminalia sericocarpa, Cleistanthus dallachyanus, Bosistoa medicinalis, Cleistanthus dallachyanus, Strychnos psilosperma and Archidendropsis thozetiana. The species occurs at altitudes from near sea-level to 200 m as. Substrates are derived from basalts, granites, rhyolites and rhyolitic ignimbrites (Bryan et al. 2000), occasionally alluvial/colluvial in origin (Wang, 1996; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Reproduction
- Flowering of Macropteranthes fitzalanii can be prolific and has been recorded in June, August, November and December. The fruiting period has been recorded in May, July and September (Wang, 1996; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- Previous populations would have been impacted by clearing for agriculture and rainforest logging. Destruction of habitat due to clearing remains a potential threat to the species. Invasive plant species are also considered a potential threat (Wang, 1996; Forster, 2010).
- Status notes
- Macropteranthes fitzalanii is listed as Near Threatened under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992.
- Management recommendations
- Management recommendations for the protection of Macropteranthes fitzalanii and its habitat include: the creation of a protective buffer (0.3 ha) that excludes clearing with all M. fitzalanii at least 30 m inside the barrier (Wang, 1996).
Forster (2010) noted that M. fitzalanii requires accurate survey to precisely determine the number of subpopulations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals. Furthermore there is little information available on the landscape ecology, genetics, reproductive biology, dispersal, recruitment or population structure of this species (Forster, 2010). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Leichhardt, North Kennedy, Port Curtis, South Kennedy (Bostock & Holland 2010).
- References
- Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Byrnes, N. (1977). Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium 20: 59-60.
Forster, P. (2010). Conservation Status Assessment for Macropteranthes fitzalanii Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee March 2010.
Forster, P.I. (1994). Notes on Dansiea Byrnes and Macropteranthes F.Muell. (Combretaceae). Austrobaileya 4: 149-153.
Pedley, L. in George, A.S. (Ed) (1990). Flora of Australia 18: 258-260.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 08/02/2012.
Wang, J. (1996). Acacia calantha Species Management Profile. Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (08/02/2012)
Other resources
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=14425.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
