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 pluviatile T.G.Hartley & L.M.Perry

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. Vol. 54 Part 2: 199 (1973)

Family: Myrtaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 40 m high) or occasionally Emergent tree; Bole cylindrical (up to 100 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 15 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark red, grey, or brown, almost smooth; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale brown, markings absent; inner blaze pale brown, markings absent; 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, 8.5-11.0 cm, 5.5-7.5 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, slightly long-tapering or sub acute; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked (shortly (subsessile) or not stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0-18.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pink, pale orange, or pale yellow; 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 arranged on branched axis, fruit red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: Madang, Morobe, Western & Papuan Islands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details