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

Canarium vitiense A.Gray

United States Exploring Expedition (Wilkes Expedition) Botany. Phanerogamia Vol. 1: (1854)

Other Literature: P.W. Leenhouts, Flora Malesiana, Series 1, 926 (1972)

Family: Burseraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (20-30 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (45-50 cm diam.); straight (bole 9-20 m long); buttresses buttresses present (rarely slightly) or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white, grey, or brown, rough or rarely smooth, rarely scaly or flaky, rarely pustular, or tessellated, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze with two layers; strongly aromatic; rarely cinnamon-like or pleasant; outer blaze red, markings absent, rarely fibrous or granular without splinters; inner blaze white, rarely pink, or red, markings absent, granular without splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, brown (rarely (probably after exposure to air) or colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to brown, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

Leaves: Leaves spaced along 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; leaves pinnate (unbranched with more than three leaflets); petiolule swollen; rachis present, absent, absent; leaves with a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets odd - imparipinnate), broadest below middle, (5.0-) 12.0-20.0 cm, (3.0-) 5.0-7.0 cm, leaflets opposite, symmetric; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or rarely green, upper surface rarely pale green or green, indumentum (hairs) rarely absent or present, indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, scale-like, fringed, small, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis or flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 8.0-10.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4-5 mm diameter); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or yellow; 3, free; stamens 6, present, free of each other or at base joined, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 3; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis or arranged on branched axis, fruit 40.0 (c.) mm long, 20.0 (c.) mm diam., green or black, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1-2, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam.

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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