Owenia F.Muell.

Scientific Description

Common name. Emu Apples. Family Meliaceae.

Family Meliaceae, Subfamily Melioideae, Tribe Trichileae.

Habit and leaf form. Trees. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves cauline. To 3–30 m high. Mesophytic. Leaves medium-sized, or very large; alternate; spiral; petiolate; with ‘normal’ orientation; compound; pinnate; paripinnate. Leaflets (3–)4–7(–25) (pairs). Lateral leaflets opposite (or subopposite). Leaflets elliptic, or oblong, or ovate, or linear; cuneate at the base, or oblique at the base; flat. Leaflet margins flat. Leaf blades dorsiventral; pinnately veined. Leaf blade margins entire; flat. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Unisexual flowers present. Plants dioecious. Plants not viviparous; homostylous. Floral nectaries present. Nectar secretion from the disk.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’. Inflorescence many-flowered. Flowers in panicles. Inflorescences compound. The terminal inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences axillary. Flowers pedicellate; minute; regular; 5 merous; cyclic. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 5; 1 -whorled; polysepalous; open in bud, or imbricate (rarely); exceeded by the corolla. Corolla present; 5; 1 -whorled; polypetalous; imbricate; regular; cream; deciduous. Corolla members entire. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 8–10. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; coherent (filaments fused in the lower half into a tube); 1 - adelphous; 1 -whorled. Stamens 8–10; all more or less similar in shape; diplostemonous. Filaments appendiculate. Anthers all alike. Gynoecium 2–3(–4) carpelled. The pistil 2–3(–4) celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 2–3(–4) locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 1; 2–3 - lobed; conical. Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit 10–38 mm long; dehiscent; a drupe; 2–3 locular. Dispersal unit the seed. Seeds not compressed (globose to ovoid); non-arillate. Cotyledons 2. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar (Pennington & Styles (1975)).

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, or Northern Territory, or Queensland. Northern Botanical Province. 2n=28. A genus of 6 species; 3 species in Western Australia; 0 endemic to Western Australia.

Etymology. After Sir Richard Owen (1804–92), biologist, superintendent of the natural history collections of the British Museum of National History; studied extinct Australian marsupials, among other palaeontological interests.