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

Polyscias belensis Philipson

Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Botany Vol. 1: 13 (1951)

Other Literature: W.R. Philipson, Handbooks of the flora of Papua New Guinea Vol. 3: 37 (1995)

Field Characters: Large trees 15-35 m high. Bole cylindrical 40 cm diam.; straight; buttresses absent; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark pale brown, rough, pustular; lenticels elongated vertically; subrhytidome yellow; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 5.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; spice-like; outer blaze brown or yellow, with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze brown or yellow, with stripes, fibrous; exudate present, colourless, spotty, changing colour on exposure to air, to pale yellow, 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, compound; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; leaves pinnate; petiolule not swollen; rachis present, not winged, not swollen; leaves with a terminal leaflet, each leaflet equally broad throughout much of length, 7.0-11.5 cm long, 2.5-3.0 cm wide, leaflets opposite, symmetric, terminal developing leaflet buds straight; venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins open <spaced far apart to easily see tertiary veins>, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; lower surface pale green, upper surface dark green, hairs absent; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal <at branch ends>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, stalked pedicel 5-6 mm long, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, 3.0-5.0 mm long, small (< or =10 mm diam.) about 3 mm diam.; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals calyx a minute rim, green or pale yellow; inner perianth 4, free; stamens 4, filaments present very short, free of each other, joined to perianth <epipetalous/episepalous> ovary inferior <seated below the petals and sepals; epigenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous>, locules 4-5; styles free <more than one style, entirely free from each other>, 4-5.

Fruits: Presumably fruits arranged on branched axis unknown. Fruit 25-50 (-60) mm long, 18.0-35.0 mm diam., fruit reddish brown, presumably not spiny, fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule. Seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (20-25 mm long), not winged, as wide as long (ellipsoid), >10 mm diam. (15-20 mm diam.).

Distribution: Madang or Morobe.

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