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

Podocarpus brassii Pilg.

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 68: 246 (1937)

Family: Podocarpaceae
Conifer

Timber Group: Softwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 75 cm diam.); crooked or straight (bole up to 15 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or pale brown, rough, scaly or flaky or fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick, 2.0-6.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale orange, pale pink, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pale orange, pale pink, or pale brown, markings absent, 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, sub opposite (in pairs, opposite one another on the branchlet) or 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 at or near middle (adult leaves) or equally broad throughout much of length, 1.0-4.0 cm, 4.0-7.5 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, sub acute, venation single-veined, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface blue-green, upper surface dark green (sub-glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal or axillary, flowers single (female cones) or flowers on an unbranched axis (male cones), cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, not stalked or stalked (shortly), flowers slightly asymmetric, 0.5-1.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (less than 1 mm diam.); perianth absent; stamens 1, absent, free of each other; ovary superior, carpels solitary, locules 1; styles absent.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit (4.0-) 6.0-10.0 mm long, 5.0-9.0 mm diam., reddish brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, nut; seeds 1, about 10 mm long (10-13 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (8-9 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Central & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes In this treatment, we are referring to the tall tree Podocarpus brassii var. brassii rather than var. humilis which is a decumbent shrub to small tree.