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Greg brought a specimen of Cynometra iripa to our July meeting, possibly the first-ever mangrove species in our group’s long-running ‘show and tell’ tradition – thank you Greg! And the Cynometra iripa Greg has grown at home (photo below) might be the first ever cultivated in a Townsville garden?
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Cynometra iripa (Fabaceae), commonly called Wrinkle-pod Mangrove, has a wide natural range along the coast of Queensland and the Northern Territory, typically growing at the landward side of mangrove forests in places with some freshwater inflow.
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Cynometra iripa is usually a spreading shrub or small tree like this one (photo above) spotted by Claire and Gavin at Magnetic Island, although it has been recorded up to 8 m tall in some places.
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Cynometra iripa has compound leaves with two pairs of leaflets (photo above) or sometimes a single pair. Helpful for identification, the central vein of each leaflet is slightly off-centre (photo below).
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Attractive clusters of small white flowers produce woody pods (photo below) that have a wrinkly surface as the common name suggests .
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At maturity these wrinkly pods are buoyant and their distribution is assisted by water currents. They are sometimes found washed up at the tideline on our local beaches (photo below).
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Two other native Cynometra species have been recognised in Australia, including the new species C. roseiflora found only on the Mossman River. For more details see Cooper, W.E. (2015) A taxonomic revision of Cynometra L. (Fabaceae) in Australia, available here.