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

Psychotria micralabastra Valeton

Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 61: 88 (1927)

Field Characters: Small trees 12 m high. Bole cylindrical 20 cm diam.; straight bole 2 m long; buttresses absent; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark pale green or brown, slightly rough or smooth, slightly pitted; subrhytidome green; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 6.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale red or brown, markings absent, slightly fibrous; inner blaze brown or pale red, markings absent, slightly fibrous; exudate present, colourless, flowing, not changing colour on exposure to air, not sticky. Terminal buds enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves opposite, simple; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; lamina broadest at or near middle, 10.0-13.0 cm long, 6.0-7.5 cm wide; lamina 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 pale green, upper surface green, hairs absent; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules present, joined, joined across twigs <growing between opposite leaves and leaving a scar between them when they fall; interpetiolar>, encircling the twig <amplexicaul>, leafy, not fringed, large <easily visible to the eye>, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal <at branch ends>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, stalked, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic> or slightly asymmetric, 2.5 mm long, small (< or =10 mm diam.) 3.5 mm diam.; perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar sepals small or possibly absent, pale yellow often with greenish tinge; inner perianth 6, free or some or partly joined; stamens 6, filaments present, free of each other, joined to perianth <epipetalous/episepalous> ovary inferior <seated below the petals and sepals; epigenous> largely superior in fruit, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous> styles solitary <including joined together>, 1.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit 6-10 mm long, 5.0-8.0 mm diam., fruit red, not spiny, slightly fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe. Seeds 1, to about 5 mm long, not winged.

Distribution: Morobe.

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