Alectryon oleifolius subsp. canescens
S.T.Reynolds Cattle BushShrubs or small trees to 6 m high, usually bushy with weeping or erect branches; branchlets, leaves and inflorescences densely white-pubescent. Leaves simple, sericeous when young, obovate to elliptic, (3–)5–8.5(–10) long, 0.4–1.6(–2.2) cm wide, obtuse, acute or subacute, mucronate, coriaceous; petiole 2–16 mm long. Inflorescence raceme- or panicle-like 1.5–9 cm long, 1.5–5 cm diam.; cymules (1–)2–9-flowered. Flowers usually bisexual; pedicels 1.5–10 mm long; calyx 1.5–2.5 mm long, subentire, broadly 5–10-toothed at margins, silky white-hairy (in Victoria); petals absent; stamen filaments 1.5–4 mm long; ovary densely white tomentose to puberulent. Capsules (1–)2–3-lobed, densely hairy, 10–25 mm diam.; pericarp subwoody, hairy or glabrous. Flowers and fruits Sep.–Feb.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP. Confined in Victoria to mallee regions where occurring on more fertile soils of low dunes and ridges, floodplains etc.
Fruiting of this species is irregular in Victoria with occasional 'mast' years and other years where virtually no fruit are produced across the range. Subsp. elongatus S.T.Reynolds differs in its larger glabrescent leaves, many-flowered inflorescences and glabrous capsules. It is largely coextensive with subsp. canescens, but has not been collected in Victoria.
Duretto, M.F. (1999). Sapindaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 139–149. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
