Harpullia alata
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harpullia alata | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: | Sapindaceae |
| Genus: | Harpullia |
| Species: | H. alata |
| Binomial name | |
| Harpullia alata | |
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| Occurrence data from AVH | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Harpullia alata, commonly known as winged tulip or wing-leaved tulip,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tree with paripinnate leaves, the leaflets elliptic with teeth on the edges, white flowers and capsules containing a seed with a yellow to reddish aril.
Harpullia alata is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 4 m (13 ft), its new growth covered with rusty hairs. Its leaves are paripinnate, 100–350 mm (3.9–13.8 in) long with 6 to 10 elliptic to lance shaped leaflets with the narrower end towards the base, mostly 50–150 mm (2.0–5.9 in) long and 20–50 mm (0.79–1.97 in) wide on a winged petiole 30–80 mm (1.2–3.1 in) long. The flowers are borne in racemes in leaf axils and are 50–140 mm (2.0–5.5 in) long. The sepals are 7 mm (0.28 in) long and covered with downy hairs, the petals are white and 12 mm (0.47 in) long, there are 8 stamens, and the ovary covered with soft hairs. The fruit is a sessile, broadly oval, yellowish capsule 18–24 mm (0.71–0.94 in) long containing two shiny chestnut brown seeds, nearly enclosed in a yellow to reddish aril.[2][3][4]
This is the only Australian Harpullia species that has dentate margins on the leaflets and wings on the leaf stem.[2]
Taxonomy and naming
Harpullia alata was first formally described in 1860 by Victorian government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller from a specimen collected by Dr Hermann Beckler "in woods" near the Clarence River in New South Wales.[5][6] The species epithet, alata, is a Latin adjective meaning "winged", and refers to the winged petiole.[2] The type specimen is held at Kew (K) k000701234.