Dodonaea platyptera
{{short description|Species of plant}}
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| image = Dodonaea platyptera flowers.jpg
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| taxon = Dodonaea platyptera
| authority = F.Muell.{{cite web |title=Dodonaea platyptera |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/72263 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=4 June 2025}}
}}
Dodonaea platyptera is a species of plant in the family Sapindaceae and is endemic to northern Australia. It is an erect dioecious shrub or small tree with hairy branches, simple, narrowly elliptic to elliptic leaves with a prominent midrib, flowers arranged in panicles or cymes, the flowers with four sepals and usually eight stamens, and capsules with three or four leathery wings.
Description
Dodonaea platyptera is a spreading, usually dioecious shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|5|m}}. Its leaves are simple, usually clustered near the ends of branches, narrowly elliptic to elliptic, petiolate, {{cvt|39–97|mm}} long and {{cvt|9–32|mm}} wide with a prominent mid-rib. The flowers are arranged in panicles or cymes, each flower on a pedicel usually {{cvt|5.5–9|mm}} long, with four narrowly oblong to narrowly egg-shaped to elliptic sepals, {{cvt|1.5–2.5|mm}} long but that fall off as the flowers develop, and usually eight stamens. The ovary is hairy and the fruit is a three- or four-winged capsule, {{cvt|7–11|mm}} long and {{cvt|21–26|mm}} wide with leathery wings {{cvt|7–11|mm}} wide.{{cite web |last1=West |first1=Judith G. |editor-last1=Busby|editor-first1=John R. |title=Dodonaea platyptera |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Dodonaea%20platyptera |publisher=Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra |access-date=4 June 2025}}{{cite web |title=Dodonaea platyptera |url=https://eflora.nt.gov.au/factsheet?id=5370 |publisher=Northern Territory Government |access-date=4 June 2025}}
Taxonomy
Dodonaea platyptera was first formally described in 1857 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany.{{cite web |title=Dodonaea platyptera |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/483759 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=4 June 2025}}{{cite journal |last1=von Mueller |first1=Ferdinand |last2=Hooker |first2=William Jackson |title=Notes made during the recent Expedition across the Northern Portion of Australia. |journal=Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany |date=1857 |volume=9 |page=197 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/6327#page/203/mode/1up |access-date=4 June 2025}} The specific epithet (platyptera) means 'broad-winged'.{{cite book |last1=George |first1=Alex |last2=Sharr |first2=Francis |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2021 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=279 |edition=3rd}}
Distribution and habitat
This species of Dodonaea grows in coastal areas, often near sand dunes or on the edges of rainforest, and sometimes further inland in open forest or in dune thickets in sandy soil in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the northern parts of the Northern Territory and in northern Queensland{{FloraBase|name=Dodonaea platyptera|id=4776}} in the north of the Northern Territory and north-eastern Queensland.
Conservation status
Dodonaea physocarpa is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and as of "least concern" under the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act and the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.{{cite web |title=Taxon Record 17379 - Dodonaea platyptera |url=https://wildnet.science-data.qld.gov.au/taxon-detail?taxon_id=17379 |publisher=Queensland Government Wild Net |access-date=4 June 2025}}