Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Guide to trees of Papua New Guinea
Copyright held by the authors, National Herbarium of New South Wales, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Alstonia brassii Monach.

Pacific Science Vol. 3: 166 (1949)

Family: Apocynaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood Tradename: Hard Alstonia

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 25 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (c. 30 cm diam.); straight (bole c. 5 m long); buttresses buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white or greenish grey, slightly rough or almost smooth, pustular, lenticels rounded/swelling; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick, 8.0 (c.); bark blaze with two layers; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze white (cream-coloured), markings absent, fibrous or granular with splinters and granular without splinters; inner blaze yellow to orange, markings absent, fibrous to granular with splinters and granular without splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless (twigs with white exudate), not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, spiral (leaves occurring singly at a node and arranged spirally up the branchlet), simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest above middle, 11.0-15.0 cm, 4.5-5.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent; present; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal and axillary (near end of branches), flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4-5 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls (with corolla lobes twisted in bud), inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 5, present, free of each other, joined to the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 350.0-750.0 mm long, brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, legume; seeds 100, about 10 mm long (8-10 mm long), not winged (with tuft of dark red-brown hairs, to 10 mm long), narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 3 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Central, Papuan Islands, New Britain, New Ireland & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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