It has shiny green elliptical leaves up to 18 cm (7.1 in) long, and prominent orange-red inflorescences that appear from August to October, followed by rectangular woody seed pods that ripen in February and March.

Readily adaptable to cultivation, Alloxylon flammeum prefers a site with good drainage and responds well to extra moisture and fertilisers low in phosphorus.

Each flower consists of a tubular perianth up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long, which partly splits along one side at anthesis to release the thick style.

[4] The New Guinean species A. brachycarpum resembles A. flammeum but has duller flowers, leaves that are shorter and wider, and fewer hairs on its perianth.

Ferdinand von Mueller had described what is now known as Alloxylon wickhamii but also collected material of A. flammeum at Trinity Bay in 1881, not realising it was a separate species.

[5] They coined the binomial name of Alloxylon flammeum, the type material having been collected by Garry Sankowsky and Peter Radke from Tolga Scrub in August 1987.

[2] The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek allo- 'other' or 'strange' and xylon 'wood' and refers to their unusual cell architecture compared with the related genera Telopea and Oreocallis.

[8][9] Almost all these species have red terminal flowers, and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance most likely predate the splitting of Gondwana into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago.

[10] The position, colour and tubular shape of the flowers suggest they are bird-pollinated,[3] and have been so since the Eocene radiation of nectar-feeding birds such as honeyeaters.

[11] Cladistic analysis of morphological features within the Embothriinae showed A. flammeum and A. brachycarpum to be sister species, with A. wickhamii as their next closest relative.

[12] A plant species of the Wet Tropics bioregion, Alloxylon flammeum is found on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland at altitudes of 700 to 820 m (2,300 to 2,700 ft) above sea level.

Found on basalt- or granite-based soil, it is a component of complex notophyll vine forest or rainforest, where it is a canopy or emergent tree.

), Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana), cabbage crowsfoot (Franciscodendron laurifolium), northern brush mahogany (Geissois biagiana), Atherton turkey bush (Hodgkinsonia frutescens), and red cedar (Toona ciliata).

[15] With under 2% of its original extent remaining, the rainforest is threatened by invasive plants and grazing by feral and domestic animals.

[21] An alternative method used has been to graft mature scions onto young stock to combine a strong root system with material capable of flowering quickly.