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

Guioa acutifolia Radlk.

Actes du Congrés International de Botanistes ... Amsterdam for 1877 1879, Ueber die Sapindaceen Hollandisch-Indiens 11 (1879)

Other Literature: P.C. van Welzen, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 Vol. 11: 564-565 (1994)

Field Characters: Small trees up to 15 m high, or shrub or large trees 20-25 m high. Bole cylindrical 10-45 cm diam.; straight; buttresses present; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark dark grey or black, slightly rough or almost smooth, pustular; lenticels irregular; subrhytidome red; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 5.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pink, slightly red, or pale brown, with stripes white, fibrous, granular without splinters; inner blaze slightly red, pale brown, or pink, with stripes white, fibrous, granular without splinters; exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs or sometimes mature twig hairy; hairs sparse.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves spiral, compound; petiole present (5-)15-70(-88) mm long, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; leaves pinnate; petiolule swollen <at tip, or base, or both> at base; rachis present, not winged, not swollen; leaves without a terminal leaflet, each leaflet sometimes broadest below middle or broadest at or near middle, (2.8-) 9.0-23.0 cm long, (1.2-) 3.0-6.0 (-8.7) cm wide, leaflets alternate or sub-leaflets opposite, symmetric or slightly asymmetric; 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 green or pale green, upper surface green, hairs absent or present on mid-vein of lower surface, sparse; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary <from between a leaf and branch>. Flowers on a branched axis or flowers on an unbranched axis; flowers bisexual sweetly aromatic, stalked, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, 2.5-4.0 mm long, small (< or =10 mm diam.) 1.5-2.5 mm diam.; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals, white or slightly pink tinge sometimes; inner perianth 5, free; stamens 8, filaments present up to 3 mm long, free of each other, free of perianth; ovary superior <seated above petals and sepals; hypogenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous>, locules 3; styles absent.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on unbranched axis or fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit 5-12 (distally 1 or 2-lobed, occasionally 3-lobed) mm long, 8.0-20.0 mm diam., fruit red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule. Seeds 1-3, about 10 mm long 4-8 mm long or to about 5 mm long, not winged, longer than wide, 1-10 mm diam. 3-5 mm wide.

Distribution: Morobe, Milne Bay, Western, Central & Papuan Islands.

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