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

Syzygium hylophilum (Lauterb. & K.Schum.) Merr. & L.M.Perry

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 23: 273 (1942)

Other Literature: Hartley & Perry, Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 201 (1973)

Family: Myrtaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (8-15 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 40 cm diam.); crooked (bole up to c. 10 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark reddish brown, pale red, brownish orange, or pale grey, slightly rough or smooth, finely cracked or scaly or flaky (slightly (papery); Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick, 5.0-7.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze grey, pale brown, yellow (pale (straw-coloured), or white, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze grey, pale brown, yellow (pale (straw-coloured), or white, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, opposite (in pairs, opposite one another on 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, 6.0-16.0 cm, 2.0-8.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins closed, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent; present; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence leaf-opposed, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 11.0-25.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (12-15 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 4, free; stamens 100, present, free of each other, free of the perianth (attached to hypanthium); ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 20.0 (c.) mm long, 20.0 (c.) mm diam., red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (c. 15 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (c. 15 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Western, Central, Northern, Papuan Islands, New Britain & New Ireland.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details