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

Prunus costata (Hemsl.) Kalkman

Blumea Vol. 13: 78 (1965)

Other Literature: C. Kalkman, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 334 (1993)

Family: Rosaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (mostly 10-25 m high); Bole cylindrical (10-30 cm diam.); straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or pale brown, slightly rough, slightly fissured or slightly pustular, lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) pink; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze with two layers; strongly aromatic; almond-like; outer blaze pale brown, markings absent; inner blaze white or yellow (pale (straw-coloured), markings absent; 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 at or near middle, 3.0-13.0 (-16.0) cm, 2.0-7.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, rounded or obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent when mature; absent or present (when present, with 2-4, flat basal glands); domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence leaf-opposed, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 3.0-6.5 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 4 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 4-6, free or some or partly joined (by misinterpretation (sepals and petals joined to mouth of floral tube); stamens 20-35, present, free of each other, free of the perianth or joined to the perianth (by misinterpretation (stamens joined to mouth of floral tube, separate from the petals and sepals); ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 6.0-10.0 mm long, red or purple, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long (c. 5-6 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long) (testa hairy), seed 1-10 mm diam. (4-5 mm diam.).

Distribution: Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Central & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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