Maniltoa lenticellata

Maniltoa lenticellata is a flowering tropical tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to tropical semi-deciduous rainforest and gallery forests in northern Queensland, some of the Torres Strait Islands, and New Guinea. Common names include: Silk Handkerchief Tree, Cascading Bean, Native Handkerchief Tree.

Maniltoa lenticellata flower by Sandy Lloyd

Maniltoa lenticellata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
(unranked):
(unranked):
(unranked):
Order:
Family:
Subfamily:
Genus:
Species:
M. lenticellata
Binomial name
Maniltoa lenticellata
(C. T. White)

Maniltoa lenticellata can grow up to 22 m (72 ft) tall but, more commonly, only reaches 10–12 m (33–39 ft). It has compound leaves with 2-4 pairs of leaflets. New leaves are folded inside dull red bracts and then released in a spectacular cascade of white foliage. The fruity-scented flowers which appear in north Queensland in September to October have 3 to 5 white-cream petals, and may be pollinated by marsupials or bats. They produce a brown pod 25–70 mm long by 18-50mm containing one brown seed in November to March. It is a favoured garden tree.[1][2]

"Maniltoa lenticellata var. villosa Verdc. from New Guinea differs from var. lenticellata in having ovaries with dense, persistent hairs." Quoted from:

Footnotes

  1. Endress and Steiner-Gafner (1996), p. 262.
  2. Beasley (2009), p. 111.

References

  • Beasley, John. (2009). Plants of Cape York: The Compact Guide. John Beasley, Kuranda, Qld., Australia. ISBN 978-0-9806863-0-2.
  • Endress, Peter K. and Brigitta Steiner-Gafner. (1996). Diversity and Evolutionary Biology of Tropical Flowers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521565103, ISBN 978-0-521-56510-3


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.