The main thing that keep botanists exploring is the prospect of meeting plants they haven’t yet met. A short walk around Millaa Millaa Falls resulting in one such meeting – with the rather little-known Symplocos hayesii.
The individual I encountered was a rather small shrub just slightly over 1m tall, and it did not immediately strike me as a Symplocos. The alternately arranged leaves were around 10-12cm long and had a rather Annonaceae look in the way it held its leaves in one plane, and in that zig-zag fashion. However, it had well defined teeth on the leaf margins (which is not terribly common in the Annonaceaes I know).
Additional features were the very hairy stems and leaf stalks. The leaves were also hairy underneath upon looking closer I could see that the hairs were mostly, if not only on the midrib and veins. On the upper side of the leaf, the midrib appeared depressed. The main veins join to form loops within the leaf lamina.
Perhaps the most curious feature was the small “runt” leaves (around 2cm long) along the stem where you would expect to find normal leaves. This is probably a spot character for the species.
As is typical of the botany journey, meeting a new plant the first time far from guarantees seeing flowers and fruits. I’ll update again when that happens.
iNaturalist entry: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84545420
Leaf Whispering in the Tropics 