Polyscias australiana.
Basswood, in family Araliaceae is endemic in northern Queensland.
They may be a shrub or a small tree up to 6 m high.
There are dense rust coloured hairs on young shoots and inflorescences.
The alternately arranged compound leaves are on petioles whose bases sheath the stem.
Each leaf has up to 10 pairs of opposite leaflets and a terminal one.
The primary rachis is slightly swollen where the leaflets attach.
The dark green leaflets, on petiolules are up to 18 cm long.
Long pendant terminal inflorescences are described as ‘diffuse panicles with flowers in umbels’.
They could also be described as umbels on an elongated primary axis.
The primary rachis has 3 or 4 (I have seen 6) nodes with long secondary branches radiating outwards from each node.
The flowers on these branches are in umbellules.
There are bracts and bracteoles under the peduncles and pedicels respectively.
Each umbellule has up to around 15 flowers on pedicels.
The calyx has a flat top with no obvious lobes.
The white petals are around 1.5 mm long.
The inferior ovary has 3 or 4 locules.
The styles are fused into a short column.
The fruit are roughly spherical black berries up to 1 cm wide.
The stylar column forms a small beak on them.
J.F.
