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

Cryptocarya pulchella Teschner

Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 58: 410 (1923)

Field Characters: Small trees 15-20 m high. Bole cylindrical 12 cm diam.; straight bole 1-2 m long; buttresses absent; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark dark grey, rough, pustular; lenticels irregular; subrhytidome dark red; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 5.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze brown, markings absent, fibrous; exudate present, colourless, spotty, changing colour on exposure to air, to orange, brown, or red, not sticky. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves spiral, simple; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; lamina broadest below middle, 14.0-16.0 cm long, 4.0-5.0 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 slightly blue-green silvery or pale green, upper surface green, hairs absent; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary <from between a leaf and branch>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, stalked, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, 4.0 mm long, small (< or =10 mm diam.) 6 mm diam.; perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, dull yellow; inner perianth 3 (inner 3 + outer 3) (-6) (by misinterpretation), some or partly joined or free; stamens 3, filaments present, free of each other, free of perianth; ovary superior <seated above petals and sepals; hypogenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous>, locules 1; styles solitary <including joined together> very short, 1.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit 8 (immature) mm long, 8.0 (immature) mm diam., fruit green, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe. Seeds 1, to about 5 mm long 5-8 mm long, not winged, as wide as long, 1-10 mm diam. 5-8 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe.

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