Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition Oxera splendida (F.Muell.) Gateble & Barrabe Family: Lamiaceae Barrabe, L.et al (2015) Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 179: 707. Common name: Latara; Vine, Glory; Buku; October Glory; Mumuni; Glory Vine; Pitutu Stem Vine stem diameters to 15 cm recorded. Living bark layer quite thick. Outer blaze very granular, inner blaze fibrous. Leaves Flowers [not vouchered]. © G. Leaf blades about 12-24 x 6-13 cm, petioles about 2-8 cm long. Flat glands usually visible on the Sankowsky underside near the base of the leaf blade in the axils of some of the lateral veins. Flowers Flowers large, about 4.5 cm diam. Sepals 1.5-2.5 cm long. Corolla lobes about 1.5-2.5 x 1.5-2.5 cm, often lobed at the apex. Corolla tube about 2-4 cm long. Stamens exserted, filaments attached about the middle of the corolla tube, filaments about 3.5-6.5 cm long, hairy towards the base. Anthers about 3-4 mm long. Pollen white. Ovary globose, densely clothed in white hairs. Style about 5-8 cm long. Stigma terminal, minutely bifid. Ovules 1 per locule. Fruit Fruits ellipsoidal, about 6-9 x 5-6 cm. Seeds about 4-4.5 x 2.5-3.5 cm. Cotyledons +/- lobed and interlocked, about 45 mm long. Radicle small and insignificant, about 1 mm long. Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO Seedlings Usually 1-2 pairs of cataphylls produced before the first true leaves. First pair of leaves usually much smaller than the second pair of leaves. First leaf blades elliptic-ovate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex acuminate ending in a long drip tip, base cordate, midrib and lateral veins depressed on the upper surface. Upper surface of the leaf blade bullate. Numerous small, orbicular, crater-like glands visible in the lower surface. Taproot long and thickened. Seed germination time 14 days. Distribution and Ecology Fruit [not vouchered]. © G. Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Grows in well developed Sankowsky lowland and upland rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea and other parts of Malesia. Natural History & Notes A food plant for the larval stages of the Pale Ciliate Blue, Common Tit, Common Oakblue and Eone Blue Butterflies. Common & Waterhouse (1981). Synonyms Faradaya splendida F.Muell. , Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 21 (1865), Type: Queensland, Rockingham Bay, J. Dallachy; lecto: K; iso: MEL. Faradaya albertisii F.Muell., Fruit, side views, transverse Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants 8: 46 (1886), Type: On the Fly-River; Dalbertis. section and seed. © W. T. Cooper RFK Code 2013 Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved. Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO Cotyledon and 10th leaf stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO 10th leaf stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO Cotyledon stage, hypogeal germination. © CSIRO Vine stem bark and vine stem transverse section. © CSIRO Web edition hosted at https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest.