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

Astronia papuana Cogn.

Monographiae Phanerogamarum Prodromi nunc Continuato, nunc Revisio Auctoribus Alphonso et Casimir de Candolle Aliisque Botanicis Ultra Memoratis. Paris Vol. 7: 1 095 (1895)

Family: Melastomataceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to c. 15 m high); Bole markedly fluted (up to c. 30 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 8 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, rough, slightly pustular or peeling, lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellow; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze yellow, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze yellow, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to purple, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs present, disk-shaped (peltate); stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent or present (peltate scales), hairs sparse.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, opposite (in pairs, opposite one another on 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, 10.0-23.0 cm, 4.0-11.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation trinerved, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins present; leaves indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pink; 5, free; stamens 10, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent (irregularly so), capsule; seeds 100, to about 5 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (3-4 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe or Western.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

.