Alyxia spicata

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}

{{Speciesbox

|image = Alyxia spicata unripe fruit Kewarra 4587.jpg

|image_caption = Alyxia spicata with unripe fruit at Kewarra Beach, Queensland

|genus = Alyxia

|species = spicata

|authority = R.Br.{{APNI | name = Alyxia spicata {{Au|R.Br.}} | id = 30789 | accessdate= 27 August 2013}}

}}

Alyxia spicata, commonly known as chain fruit, is a sprawling shrub or vine in the family Apocynaceae. It is native to New Guinea and the Australian tropics.

Plants may grow up to {{convert|4|m}} high and have leaves in whorls of 4 on vertically growing shoots and whorls of 3 on horizontal shoots. Flowers usually have an orange tube with cream lobes and are {{convert|3|to|4|mm|abbr=on}} in diameter with a hairy calyx. Fruits transition through yellow and orange and ultimately black upon ripening. These are around {{convert|10|mm|abbr=on}} in diameter and may be joined like beads on a string.

The species was formally described in 1810 by Scottish botanist Robert Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae, based on a specimen collected at Vanderlin Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Plant material had earlier been collected at Cape Grafton and the Endeavour River during Lieutenant James Cook's first voyage of discovery in 1770 and illustrated by Sydney Parkinson.{{cite web|author=Jago, Bob|title=Plants Collected by Banks & Solander in 1770 from North Queensland|publisher=SGAP Queensland|url=http://www.sgapcairns.org.au/Newsletters/100_Jun10.pdf|accessdate=27 August 2013}}{{cite web|title=Alyxia spicata|work=NMA Collections |publisher=National Museum of Australia|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=166146|accessdate=27 August 2013}} An illustration of the species was published in 1900 with the name Gynopogon spicatum in Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook's Voyage Round the World in H.M.S. "Endeavour" in 1768-71.{{cite book|author1=Britten, James|author2=Banks, Joseph|author3= Solander|title=Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook's Voyage Round the World in H. M. S. "Endeavour" in 1768-71|url=http://www.botanicus.org/page/1095969|accessdate=27 August 2013|year=1900|publisher=Longmans}}

Alyxia spicata occurs naturally in rainforest, beach forest, vine thickets and on cliffs in New Guinea, the northernmost parts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory as well as north-east Queensland.{{FloraBase|name=Alyxia spicata |id=6566 }} It is found at altitudes ranging from sea level to {{convert|1000|m}}.