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

Elaeocarpus culminicola Warb.

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 16: 23 (1893)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 126-128 (1981) Fig. 29.

Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (15-25 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 25 cm diam.); straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, rough, slightly pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellow, green, or mottled; less than 25 mm thick, 6.0-8.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic or strongly aromatic; pleasant (fruity); outer blaze white, yellow (pale (straw-coloured), or green (slightly tinge), markings absent; inner blaze white, yellow (pale (straw-coloured), or green (slightly tinge), markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, 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) present or absent, hairs sparse.

Leaves: Leaves slightly clustered at end of branches or 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 at or near middle or broadest below middle, 5.0-13.0 cm, 2.0-6.0 cm; symmetric, entire, crenate, or serrate to dentate (toothed), not dissected or lobed, acute or acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green (semi-glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent or present, indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary or on the trunk or branches, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, (6.0-) 8.0-17.0 (-20.0) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white (cream-coloured) or pink; 4-5, free; stamens 25-35, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2-3; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 19.0-20.0 mm long, blue, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1-2, about 10 mm long, not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe, Southern Highlands & Northern.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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