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

Vernonia arborea Buch.-Ham.

Transactions of the Linnean Society. Botany Vol. 14: 218 (1824)

Family: Asteraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to 25 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 25 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 12 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale brown, rough, furrowed cork or pustular (slightly to prominently ridged), lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellowish brown, yellow, or green; less than 25 mm thick, 5.0-9.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze yellow, markings absent or speckled, granular with splinters or slightly fibrous; inner blaze yellow, markings absent or speckled, slightly fibrous or granular with splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to greenish black or dark brown, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present (indumentum silky), 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 below middle, 4.0-16.5 cm, 2.5-6.0 cm; symmetric (to slightly asymmetric), entire, not dissected or lobed, acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface whitish green, upper surface green (rough to touch), indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense or sparse (hairy on both surfaces, but denser on lower surface); absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis (flower heads arranged in a panicle) or flowers arising from a single point (head), cones absent; flowers bisexual, not stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 4.0-5.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (3-4 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or purple (pale to lavender on lobes); 5, some or partly joined; stamens 100, present, joined, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point (head) or arranged on branched axis (fruiting heads arraned in a panicle), fruit 3.0-5.0 mm long, 1.0-2.0 mm diam., dark brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, achene (cypsela); seeds 1, barely visible (to 1 mm long), not winged (but single-seeded fruit with white pappus), narrow (longer than wide), seed less than 1 mm diam.

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details