Leopard Tree, Leopardwood.

St George's Bridge, Balonne River, N.S.W., Nov 1846, T.L. Mitchell s.n.; holo: K; iso: NSW.

Tree to 15 m high, developing from a divaricately branched shrub stage armed with spur branchlets. Trichomes simple, fasciculate, stellate, and scale-like. Leaves opposite, simple (rarely occasional leaves trifoliolate), 1.5–8.5 cm long; petiole neither winged nor marginate, 0.1–1.2 cm long; lamina narrowly elliptic, narrowly obovate, or sublinear, 1–8 cm long, 0.25–1 (–1.5) cm wide, rounded to acute. Inflorescences 1–8 cm long. Flowers apparently exclusively bisexual. Sepals 1–1.5 mm long. Petals 3–4 mm long, white or cream, glabrous abaxially, glabrous or sparsely papillose adaxially. Ovules 2 on each side of placental arms. Capsule 2–4 cm long, separating (or easily separable) into 5 distinct valves at maturity; exocarp muricate, glabrous, with excrescences 1–2 mm long. Seeds 2 on each side of much-enlarged placental arms, c. 1.8 cm long, winged at both ends. Embryo with lateral hypocotyl.

Flowers September–December; fruits most of year.

Native.

Occurs from Hughenden, central Queensland, to the Riverina District, southwestern New South Wales.

Grows in dry, rather open places, to 400 m alt. 

Details on the ecology of Flindersia maculosa are provided by J.C. Doran et al., in J.C. Doran & J.W. Turnbull (eds), Australian Trees and Shrubs: Species for Land Rehabilitation and Farm Planting in the Tropics 290–291 (1997).

Qld: Hughenden, L.J. Brass & C.T.White 63 (A, BO, BRI, K); c. 55 km N of Charleville on Ward River road, L.S. Smith 841 (A, BRI, CANB, MEL, NY).

N.S.W.: Koonenberry Mountains c. 100 km SSE of Milparinka, E.F. Constable 4609 (CANB, NSW); ‘Mount Mulyah’  c. 80 km NW of Louth, C.W.E. Moore 4575 (CANB); c. 32 km SE of Bourke, E. Riek & I. Common 132 (CANB).

Details of the utilisation of Flindersia maculosa are provided by J.C. Doran et al., in J.C. Doran & J.W. Turnbull (eds), Australian Trees and Shrubs: Species for Land Rehabilitation and Farm Planting in the Tropics 290–291 (1997).

J.H. Maiden, Forest Flora of New South Wales 1: t. 39 (1904); F.M. Bailey, Comprehensive Catalogue of Queensland Plants both Indigenous and Naturalised: 97, fig. 73 bis (1913); J.P. Jessop (ed.), Flora of Central Australia: 196, fig. 226 (1981); G.M. Cunningham et al., Plants of Western New South Wales: 447 (1981); E.R. Rotherham et al., Flowers and Plants of New South Wales and Southern Queensland: 151, pls 489, 490 (1982); A.J.G. Wilson (ed.), Flora of Australia 26: xv, pl. 20 (2013).

Hartley, T.G. (2013). Flindersia, Wilson, A.J.G. (ed.), Flora of Australia 26: 62–72. (ABRS: Canberra/CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne).

Rotherham, E.R., Briggs, B.G., Blaxell, D.F. & Carolin, R.C. (1975, reprinted 1982). Flowers and Plants of New South Wales and Southern Queensland. (A.H. Reed & A.W. Reed Pty Ltd: Frenchs Forest).

T.G. Hartley, Flindersia, in A.J.G. Wilson (ed.), Flora of Australia 26: 62–72 (2013).