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

Dryadodaphne crassa Schodde

Flora Malesiana, Series 1 Vol. 10: 265-267 (1986) Fig. 3.

Family: Atherospermataceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (20-35 m high); Bole cylindrical (mostly 45-60 cm diam., sometimes irregular in section); straight (bole 14-20 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 1.5 m high, often only slightly buttressed); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown (or pale brown), slightly rough or smooth, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellowish green or yellow; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze yellow (pale (straw-coloured), with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze yellow (pale (straw-coloured), with stripes, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, not sticky; 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) (or sub-opposite), simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves slightly broadest above middle or broadest at or near middle, (3.0-) 4.5-8.0 (-10.0) cm, 1.0-3.0 (-4.5) cm; symmetric, entire or crenate (often obsurely so), not dissected or lobed, often emarginate or retuse or obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or green, upper surface dark green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 4.0-6.0 (-7.0) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4-8 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth white, pale yellow, green (pale (yellowish green), or pale cream-coloured; 4 (inner and outer perianth whorls approximately equal in size), free or some or partly joined (by misinterpretation of hypanthium to be a perianth 'tube', such that separate perianth parts are incorrectly regarded as 'lobes' joined to form a perianth 'tube'); stamens 8, absent, free of each other, free of the perianth or joined to the perianth (perianth and stamens are joined to rim of hypanthium, but since hypanthium is perianth-like, the stamens may be incorrectly regarded as attached to the 'mouth' of the 'perianth tube'); ovary superior, carpels separate (when more than one), locules 15; styles free, 15.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit (3.0-) 5.0-6.0 mm long, 5.0 (c.) mm diam., brown, not spiny, non-fleshy (fruiting hypanthium thickened and hardened), aggregate, indehiscent or dehiscent (appearing to be dehiscent because hypanthium dehiscing into usually 4 valves, rarely opening into 2 valves), capsule (by misinterpretation), achene (densely covered with long erect hairs and terminal style); seeds 1 (per achene), to about 5 mm long (c. 3 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (1-2 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Morobe & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes This genus was previously classified in the family Monimiaceae.