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

Polyalthia oblongifolia Burck

Nova Guinea Vol. 8: 429 (1910)

Family: Annonaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (30-60 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 17 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, slightly rough or smooth, slightly cracked; Subrhytidome (under-bark) brown; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-18.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze pale yellow or orange (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 enclosed by leaves.

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

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 at or near middle or occasionally equally broad throughout much of length, 17.0-34.0 cm, 12.0-16.0 cm; very asymmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence on the trunk or branches, flowers arising from a single point or flowers on an unbranched axis (axis very short), cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 15.0-20.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (c. 15 mm diameter); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth cream-coloured or pale green; 6, free; stamens many 100, present (very short), free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels separate (when more than one), locules 1 (per carpel); styles free, 1 (per carpel).

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point, fruit 15.0-20.0 mm long, 15.0 (c.) mm diam., orange, not spiny, fleshy (leathery), aggregate (but fertilised carpels not joing together to form a single fruit), indehiscent, berry; seeds 1 (per carpel), about 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 8 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern, Milne Bay, Papuan Islands & New Britain.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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