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

Calophyllum vexans P.F.Stevens

Australian Journal of Botany Vol. 22: 407 (1974) Fig. 16.

Other Literature: P.F. Stevens, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 108-110 (1995) Fig. 22.

Family: Clusiaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 25 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree (10-15 m high); Bole cylindrical (c. 30 cm diam.); crooked (bole up to 15 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 1. 7 m high) or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots often stilt roots present; Bark white or brown, later rough or smooth, scaly or flaky and fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red and brown; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellow, red, and brown (pale (golden-coloured), markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze yellow, red, and brown (pale (golden-coloured), markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present and absent, white/milky and yellow, not readily flowing (spotty), perhaps colour changing on exposure to air or colour not changing on exposure to air, to green (pale (exudate perhaps changing colour to pale green), not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or absent, 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, 3.4-13.0 cm, 1.2-4.7 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse or acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins closed, prominent or rarely not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent or just present, indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants?, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0-6.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (5-6 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth white; 4-8, free; stamens 30-105, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 20.0 (c.) mm long, purplish brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, Morobe, Western, Gulf, Central, Milne Bay, New Britain, New Ireland & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes Often included in the family Guttiferae.