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

Dysoxylum parasiticum (Osbeck) Kosterm.

Reinwardtia Vol. 7: 247 (1966)

Other Literature: D.J. Mabberley & A.M. Sing, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 76-81 (1995) Fig. 11.

Family: Meliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 27 m high, rarely up to 36 m) or Small sub-canopy tree (up to 20 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 45 cm diam., rarely to 60 cm); crooked (bole up to 6 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 1.5 m high) or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale yellow, grey, or greyish brown, slightly rough or almost smooth, scaly or flaky or slightly pustular, lenticels elongated vertically or rarely lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) dark yellow; less than 25 mm thick, 15.0-20.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant or onion-like; outer blaze yellow or pale brown, rarely speckled or with stripes (orange), granular with splinters; inner blaze yellow or pale brown, rarely speckled or with stripes (orange), granular with splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air or colour not changing on exposure to air, to brown, not sticky; terminal buds not 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), compound (a leaf made up from two or more leaflets); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves pinnate (unbranched with more than three leaflets); petiolule not swollen; rachis present, absent, absent; leaves with a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets odd - imparipinnate), broadest at or near middle, broadest below middle, or equally broad throughout much of length, 16.0-20.0 (-28.0) cm, 5.0-7.0 (-8.0) cm, leaflets opposite (slightly subopposite), asymmetric, terminal developing leaflet buds straight; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) present (hairs brown), indumentum (hairs) dense or sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence on the trunk or branches, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 12.0-16.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (5-9 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 10, absent (appearing absent) or present, joined (forming staminal tube), joined to the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 30.0-40.0 mm long, brown, not spiny, fleshy (leathery), simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 2-5, much more than 10 mm long (15-20 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed more than 10 mm diam. (up to c. 15 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern, Milne Bay, New Britain, New Ireland, Manus & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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