Harpullia frutescens, commonly known as dwarf harpullia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, and is endemic to North Queensland. It is a shrub with paripinnate leaves with 6 to 8 leaflets, white flowers with a pink tinge, and crimson capsules containing 2 seeds with a yellow aril.

Description

Harpullia frutescens is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1-2 m, its young growth covered with downy hairs. Its leaves are paripinnate, 45–185 mm long with 6 to 8 elliptic to lance shaped leaflets sometimes tapering to a point, 75–170 mm long and 25–50 mm wide on a winged petiole 35–85 mm long. The flowers are strongly perfumed, borne in clusters of mostly 2 to 4 in upper leaf axils 30–120 mm long, each flower on a slender, hairy peduncle up to 5 mm long. The sepals are 7–8 mm long and covered with downy hairs, the petals are white with a pink tinge, and 15–20 mm long. There are 5 or 6 stamens, and the ovary covered with woolly hairs. The fruit is a laterally compressed, crimson capsule about 12–16 mm long containing two shiny seeds, enclosed in a yellow, cup-shaped aril.

Taxonomy

Harpullia frutescens was first formally described in 1889 by Frederick Manson Bailey in a report on the Government Scientific Expedition to the Bellenden-Ker Range. The specific epithet (frutescens) means "becoming bushy".

Distribution and habitat

Dwarf harpullia is common in rainforest from Ayton to the Atherton Tableland area in North Queensland, usually in hilly country.