96 
KATHY M. NICHOLS, J. H. BROWNE AND R. F. PARSONS 
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F/>. 4. Location of the study sites in north-western 
Victoria. 
woodlands of Casuarina pauper and/or Callitris 
preissii, (2) various mallee communities or (3) 
various secondary shrublands following disturb¬ 
ance of (1) or (2) (see Table 1). They appear to be 
absent from the relatively infertile deep sands 
and from floodplains. 
Sites for detailed study (Fig. 4) were chosen to 
encompass a range of mean annual rainfalls 
(Table 1, Appendix 1) and to include the largest 
populations known to us (sites 1,3 and 5), as well 
as populations exclosed against grazing mam¬ 
mals in conservation reserves (sites 4 and 6). 
MORPHOLOGY 
Seed and seedling morphology 
Marsdenia seeds are glabrous, dull, mid-to dark 
brown, flattened, finely winged, pyriform to 
ovate and comose at the narrower, germinating 
end. Germination is epigeal, the radicle emerg¬ 
ing a minimum of two days from imbibition. 
Many short, fine root hairs develop as the radide 
elongates (Fig. 5). The testa usually falls away in 
one piece. Sometimes it fails to fall off and dries, 
in which case it must be removed to allow seed¬ 
ling development as is the case in some other 
asclepiads (Harp 1987). The cotyledons are flat, 
petiolate and elliptical to obovate (Fig. 5). Tri- 
cotyledony occurs occasionally. 
At 18 weeks, all seedlings have a tuberous 
taproot typically 10 mm in diameter with fine 
