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

Dendrocnide morobensis Chew

Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore Vol. 25: 67-69 (1969) Fig. 27.

Family: Urticaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 25 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical; crooked; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey, rough, fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze white or yellow (pale (cream-coloured), markings absent; inner blaze white or yellow (pale (cream-coloured), markings absent; 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 present (very sparse on leaves, inflorescences and flowers) or absent (on branchlets); 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), 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 broadest below middle, 6.0-17.0 cm, 3.0-10.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, distinctly acuminate, venation pinnate or trinerved, secondary veins open, prominent or not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent (densely covered with round cystoliths); domatia absent; stipules present, joined, joined across twigs, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, large (up to 10 mm long), not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, 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, 0.6-(female flowers; male flowers)-1.3 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (less than 1 mm diam.); perianth present, petals absent, inner perianth green (sepals); 4, free; stamens 4 (male flowers), absent or present (filaments very short), free of each other; ovary superior (female flowers), carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 2.0 (c.) mm long, brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, nut; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long (c. 2 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 2 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe or Eastern Highlands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details