Austrobaileyaceae

• Austrobaileya scandens

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• Common Name:
• Family: Austrobaileyaceae (Croiz.) Croiz.

• Country of Origin: Australia - Queensland
• Habitat: Daintree Rainforest endemic - Mesophyll / notophyll vine forest

• Description: Evergreen, woody vines with loosely twining main stem and straight, leafy lateral branches endemic to the rainforests of northeast Queensland, Australia. This species is one of two species in the genus and the genus is the only member of the family, Austrobaileyaceae. It is a very primitive angiosperm family although it is sometimes placed in the Magnoliales (Cronquist) or Laurales. Cronquist considers it an "isolated small group, not wholly compatible with the bulk of either the Laurales or Magnoliales, but not sufficiently distinctive to constitute a family of its own."

  The flowers are rather large, solitary in the axils of the leaves, with a putrescent odor, probably pollinated by flies.

  Its pollen is the oldest recorded flowering plant pollen in Australia.