Excoecaria Parvifolia Botanical Illustrations: Australia's Gutta-Percha

Summary: Excoecaria parvifolia botanical illustrations, not Palaquium gutta and Betula pubescens images, depict Australia's gutta-percha and northern brown birch.

Australia's gutta-percha (Excoecaria parvifolia) claims sustaining habitats in Elsey National Park, northeastern Northern Territory; Crossing Salt Creek near the Roper River, Eastern Arnhem Land, Australia, July 1911; glass plate negative of eastern Elsey National Park by English-Australian biologist and anthropologist Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (June 23, 1860-July 14, 1929), Museums Victoria Collections, accession number XP14098, Melbourne, Victoria, southeastern Australia: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Gutta-percha tree images and northern brown birch tree images are associated with Excoecaria parvifolia botanical illustrations in Australia and with Palaquium gutta botanical illustrations and Betula pubescens var. pumila botanical illustrations elsewhere.

Australian gutta-perchas (from the Malay getah, "latex" and perca, "cloth-strips") and northern brown birches bear their common names because of rubbery sap and northern distribution ranges. They carry their scientific name Excoecaria parvifolia, from the Latin excaecāre ("to make blind") and same-spelled adjective ("small-leafed"), for temporary sightlessness from contact with their latex. Their Euphorbiaceae (from the Greek physician Εὐφορβος, Eúphorbos, "well-fed") spurge family membership derives from scientific descriptions by Johannes Müller (May 9, 1828-Jan. 28, 1896) in 1864.

Australian gutta-percha trees and northern brown birches exist endemically in clay-soiled, seasonally waterlogged flats and somewhat saline wetlands in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.

November through December and January through April fit into Excoecaria parvifolia life cycles as respective flowering and fruiting months for gutta-percha trees and northern brown birches.

Gutta-percha trees and northern brown birches grow from broad-tipped, oblong-oval, smooth, white-brown, 0.19-inch- (5-millimeter-) long seeds that group with spurge family members without, not with, caruncles. Ant-attracting, attached, fleshy caruncles (from the Latin caruncula, "wart") and elaiosomes (from the Greek έλαιον, élaion, "olive oil" and σόμα, sóma, "body") harbor lipids and proteins. Fruiting intervals impress each schizocarp (from the Greek σχίζω, skhízō, "I split" and καρπός, karpós, "fruit") into three one-seeded mericarps (from the Greek μερίς, merís, "part").

Gutta-percha tree images and northern brown birch tree images in Excoecaria parvifolia botanical illustrations juggle lengthwise-opened, two-celled anthers; three base-fused, two-lobed styles; and three-cavitied, three-ovuled ovaries.

Minute outer-whorled perianths (from the Greek περί, perí, "around" and άνθος, ánthos, "flower") keep 0.39-inch- (10-millimeter-) long male flowers and their lone stamens within leaf-like enclosures.

Male flowers look littler than one stalked female flower within every cyathium (from the Greek κυάθιον, kuáthion, "cuplet") of base-fused bracts lodged alternately with nectary glands. Eleven- to 20-year gutta-percha and northern brown birch deciduous (from the Latin dēcīdere, "to fall down" [annually]) life cycles mingle leafing, flowering, fruiting and seeding months. They net black-gray, fissured bark; mature 22.96-foot (7-meter) base-treetop heights; and 0.59- to 1.85-inch- (15- to 47-millimeter-) long, 0.16- to 0.87-inch- (4- to 22-millimeter-) wide leaves.

Leafing gutta-percha tree images and northern brown birch tree images in Excoecaria parvifolia botanical illustrations observe elliptical to lance-oblong or oblong-oval, purple-topped leaves with basal glands.

Boiling inner bark with latex from smooth, succulent foliage on 0.039- to 0.32-inch- (1- to 8-millimeter-) long petioles (from the Latin petiolus, "little foot") provides antiseptics.

Aromatic red wood and sterilized latex qualify guttah-perchas and northern brown birches for respective boomerang and veneer product lines and for natural cut- and wound-cleaning products. Australia's Nature Conservation Act regards gutta-perchas and northern brown birches as of least concern even as mistletoes (Lysiana maritima) parasitically ravage the lagoon- and river-edge resident. Connells Lagoon Conservation Reserve; Elsey, Judbarra/Gregory, Keep River and Limmen National Parks; Giwining/Flora River Nature Park; Limmen Bight Marine Park; and Longreach Waterhole sustain Excoecaria parvifolia.

Noble (Cryptoblepharus exochus) and tawny (Cryptoblepharus ruber) snake-eyed skinks, healthy ecosystem indicators, sometimes tumble over their favorite host plants in Excoecaria parvifolia botanical illustrations and images.

Northeastern Northern Territory's Keep River National Park shelters Australia's gutta-percha (Excoecaria parvifolia) as well as striking sandstone formations: Keep River National Park, view from Gurrandalng Walk; Monday, Dec. 1, 1997: Rr2000, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Australia's gutta-percha (Excoecaria parvifolia) claims sustaining habitats in Elsey National Park, northeastern Northern Territory; Crossing Salt Creek near the Roper River, Eastern Arnhem Land, Australia, July 1911; glass plate negative of eastern Elsey National Park by English-Australian biologist and anthropologist Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (June 23, 1860-July 14, 1929), Museums Victoria Collections, accession number XP14098, Melbourne, Victoria, southeastern Australia: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walter_Baldwin_Spencer_-_Crossing_Salt_Creek_near_the_Roper_River,_Eastern_Arnhem_Land,_Australia,_July_1911_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg; Museum Victoria Collections, Indigenous or Cultural Rights Apply, Copyright expired, via Google Arts Culture @ https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/VwEI6pcQYzePFg; glass plate, All Rights Reserved / Reuse may require cultural clearances, text content, CC BY 4.0 International, via Museums Victoria Collections @ https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1765436

Northeastern Northern Territory's Keep River National Park shelters Australia's gutta-percha (Excoecaria parvifolia) as well as striking sandstone formations: Keep River National Park, view from Gurrandalng Walk; Monday, Dec. 1, 1997: Rr2000, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keep-River-Nationalpark,_View_from_Gurrandalng.jpg

For further information:

"Excoecaria parvifolia Müll. Arg." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/50294780

Horner, Paul. December 2007. "Systematics of the Snake-Eyed Skinks, Cryptoblepharus Wiegmann (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) -- an Australian-Based Review." The Beagle, Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory Supplement 3: 21-198.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library@ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55260723#page/25/mode/1up

Müller, J. (Johannes). 3 September 1864. "2. Excaecaria (sect. Euexcaecaria) parvifolia." Flora oder allgemeine botanische Zeitung, herausgegeben von der königl. bayer. botanischen Gesellschaft in Regensburg. Neue Reihe. XXII. Jahrgang. Vol. 47, no. 28: 433-434.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55899

Wrigley, John; and Murray Fagg. 2007. Australian Native Plants: Cultivation, Use in Landscaping and Propagation. London UK; Sydney, Australia; Auckland NZ: New Holland Publishers.