Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Copyright held by the authors, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Cryptocarya novoguineensis Teschner

Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 58: 41 (1923)

Field Characters: Large trees 15-30 m high. Bole cylindrical 25-50 cm diam.; straight bole 8-15 m long; buttresses absent or present up to 1.5 m high; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark white, grey, or greyish brown, slightly rough or almost smooth, pustular; lenticels elongated vertically or irregular; subrhytidome green or brown; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 12.0-15.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic or faintly to non-aromatic; cinnamon-like; outer blaze orange or brown, markings absent or speckled, fibrous; inner blaze orange or brown, markings absent or speckled, fibrous; exudate present, colourless, spotty, changing colour on exposure to air, to orange or brown, not sticky. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs or mature twig hairy; hairs sparse.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves spiral, simple; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; lamina broadest at or near middle or broadest below middle, 6.5-12.0 (-15.5) cm long, 4.0-8.0 (-9.0) cm wide; lamina very asymmetric or symmetric, margin entire, not dissected or lobed, apex acuminate, venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins open <spaced far apart to easily see tertiary veins>, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; lower surface blue-green or green, upper surface dark green, hairs absent or present, sparse; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary <from between a leaf and branch>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, not stalked, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, c. 5.0 mm long, small (< or =10 mm diam.) about 4 mm diam.; perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, cream-coloured or white; inner perianth 3, free; stamens 9, filaments present, free of each other, free of perianth; ovary superior <seated above petals and sepals; hypogenous>, carpels solitary <monomerous>, locules 1; styles solitary <including joined together>, 1.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit almost black when mature or green when immature, not spiny, slightly fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe. Seeds 1, about 10 mm long, not winged, as wide as long, 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe.

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