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

Aleurites moluccana Willd. var. floccosa Airy Shaw

Kew Bulletin Vol. 20: 26 (1966)

Family: Euphorbiaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (20-25 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (25-50 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 15 m long); buttresses buttresses present (sometimes slightly) or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, rough, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green or red; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-15.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze pale red, speckled, slightly fibrous; inner blaze pale red, speckled, slightly fibrous; 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 present, star-like (stellate); stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present, hairs dense (with reddish hairs).

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 below middle, (10.0-) (on young plants) 12.0-17.0 cm, (5.5-) 10.0-15.0 cm; symmetric, entire (slightly undulate), dissected or lobed (slightly on young plants) or not dissected or lobed, palmately lobed (very slightly 3-palmately lobed on young trees), sub acute or slightly acuminate, venation pinnate or often trinerved, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green (dull with off-white hairs), upper surface green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0-10.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (5-8 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white, pale yellow, or cream-coloured; 5, free; stamens present, free of each other; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 3; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 30.0-40.0 mm long, green or brown, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, berry; seeds 2, much more than 10 mm long (20-25 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (c. 20 mm diam.).

Distribution: Madang, Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western, Central, Northern & New Britain.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

.