Species profile—Rourea brachyandra
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Connaraceae → Rourea brachyandra
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Connaraceae
- Scientific name
- Rourea brachyandra F.Muell.
- WildNet taxon ID
- 10483
- Alternate name(s)
- water vine
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Least concern
- Conservation significant
- No
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Description
- Rourea brachyandra is a vine. The stem has a diameter of approximately 8 cm. The outer bark is finely flaky with individual flakes 2-4 mm wide. The stem is often fluted and contorted. There are usually 3-7 leaflets in each compound leaf. Leaflet blades are 4.5-14 cm long and 2-6.5 cm wide. The lateral leaflet petiole is 0.2-0.6 cm long and transversely wrinkled. The petiole of the middle or terminal leaflet is longer than those of the lateral leaflets. The pulvinus is present only on the petiole of the middle or terminal leaflet. The inflorescences are strongly perfumed, the odour resembling that of bee stings. The male flowers are approximately 4 mm in diameter at anthesis. The sepals are about 2 mm long. The petals are about 5mm long, narrower than the sepals. There are 10 stamens, alternately long and short, the shorter stamens are opposite the petals. The short stamens have filaments which are about 1 mm long. The long stamens have filaments which are about 1.5 mm long. The female or hermaphrodite flowers have sepals about 2 mm long and 1 mm in diameter. The petals obovate, about 5 mm long and 2 mm wide. There are 10 stamen, 5 short and 5 long. The stigmas are sessile. The fruits are about 13-15 mm long and 6mm wide. The surface of the fruit is longitudinally striated. The calyx remnants persistent at the base of the fruit. The aril bright red, enveloping the seed. The testa is brown. The seed ellipsoid, about 9-10 mm long and 5 mm wide (Mueller, 1974; Hyland et al., 2012).
The first seedling leaves are unifoliolate, broadly lanceolate to ovate with an acute apex and cordate base. At the tenth leaf stage, the leaf or leaflets are ovate, the apex acuminate to acute and the base obtuse to cordate. The upper and lower surfaces of the leaf or leaflet blades are clothed in dark-coloured glands which are visible with a lens. The lateral veins form loops inside the blade margin. The terminal bud is densely clothed in pale brown erect hairs (Hyland et al., 201). - Distribution
- Rourea brachyandra occurs in northern and central Queensland from Stuckies Gap south to near Carmila. While it is most widespread in the Wet Tropics bioregion, there are a small number of populations in the Whitsundays within the Central Queensland Coast bioregion. It is known from at least 23 populations (Forster, 2010; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
Recorded from the Cape Hillsborough, Cedar Bay, Clump Mountain, Conway, Daintree, Eubenangee Swamp, Girramay, Girringun, Pioneer Peaks, Gadgarra and Wooroonooran National Parks, Monkhouse Timber Reserve (Forster, 2010; Queensland Herbarium, 2012). It also occurs in Asia, Malesia and Pacific Islands. - Distributional limits
- -15.7568052, 145.275
-21.8067654, 149.2760872 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Rourea brachyandra occurs in lowland and upland rainforests (complex notophyll to mesophyll vineforests), from near sea-level to 620 m altitude. Substrates are derived from basalts, granites and metamorphics (often alluvial/colluvial in origin). Associated species include: Argyrodendron polyandrum, Cryptocarya hypospodia, Myristica muelleri, Acmenosperma claviflorum, Elaeocarpus grandis, Cryptocarya spp., Litsea spp., Beilschmiedia obtusifolia and Aglaia brownii (Forster, 2010); Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- Some populations would have been impacted by clearing for agriculture and rainforest logging in the past. Invasive plants are considered a medium risk as a threatening process to R. brachyandra (Forster, 2010).
- Status notes
- Rourea brachyandra is listed as Near Threatened under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management recommendations
- Forster (2010) recommends that this species requires accurate survey to precisely determine the number of subpopulations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals. 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: Cook, North Kennedy, Port Curtis, South Kennedy (Bostock and Holland, 2010; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- 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.
Forster, P. (2010). Conservation Status Assessment for Rourea brachyandra Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee March 2010.
Hyland, B.P.M., Whiffin, T., Zich, F.A., Duffy, S., Gray, B., Elick, R., Venter, F. and Christophel, D. (2012). Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, ed. 6, version 6.1. Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Canberra, Australia. Accessed 14/02/2012. http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/cd-keys/rfk/index.html
Mueller, F.J.H. von (1872). Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 8 (58): 6.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 14/02/2012. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (14/02/2012)
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=10483.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
