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

Perrottetia alpestris subsp. moluccana (Blume) Ding Hou

Flora Malesiana, Series 1 Vol. 6: 291 (1962)

Family: Celastraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to 10 m high, rarely to 24 m); Bole cylindrical (c. 10 cm diam.); crooked or straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or soon absent, hairs dense.

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 at or near middle or broadest below middle, 6.5-23.0 cm, 2.5-9.0 cm; symmetric (base cuneate to attenuate), crenate (teeth very small), not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves indumentum (hairs) absent (often (on upper surface) or present, dense (hairs appressed to leaf surface); absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, scale-like (small), not fringed, small, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 0.5-1.3 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 1 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 5, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary (short), 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 2.5-6.0 mm long, red or brown, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, berry; seeds 2-4, to about 5 mm long (c. 4 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 2.5 mm diam.).

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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