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

Gastonia spectabilis (Harms) Philipson

Blumea Vol. 68: 494 (1970)

Other Literature: W.R. Philipson, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 10 (1995) Fig. 2.

Family: Araliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree or Small sub-canopy tree (20-34 m high); Bole cylindrical (50-100 cm diam.); straight (bole 15-20 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, rough, slightly scaly or flaky; Subrhytidome (under-bark) brown; less than 25 mm thick, 12.0-18.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; onion-like (celery-like aroma); outer blaze white or pale yellow, with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze white or pale yellow, with stripes, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

Leaves: Leaves clustered at end of branches, spiral (leaves occurring singly at a node and arranged spirally up the branchlet), compound (a leaf made up from two or more leaflets); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, swollen (at point of attachment to branchlet and at node of first leaflets); leaves pinnate (unbranched with more than three leaflets); petiolule not swollen (but attached to swollen nodes); rachis present, absent, absent; leaves with a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets odd - imparipinnate), broadest below middle, 7.0-14.0 cm, 4.0-6.5 cm, leaflets opposite, symmetric, terminal developing leaflet buds straight; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface dull green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis (arising from a single point (whorl), cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0-15.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (12-15 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pale green; 4, free; stamens 100, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules (10-) 16-22; styles solitary (partly joined to form a stylopodium of appressed styles), (10-) 16-22.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis (arising from a single point (whorl), fruit 7.0-9.0 mm long, 10.0 (c.) mm diam., black, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 20 (c.), to about 5 mm long (c. 6 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (3-4 mm diam.).

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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