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

Canarium rigidum Zipp. ex Miq.

Flora van Nederlandsch Indië Vol. 1(2), part 4: 648 (1859)

Family: Burseraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (25-45 m high); Bole cylindrical (45-75 cm diam.); straight (bole 15-25 m long); buttresses buttresses absent or buttresses present (sometimes buttresses up to c. 1.5 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, rough, scaly or flaky, pustular, or tessellated, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) orange or red; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0 (c.); bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; resinous/linament-like; outer blaze orange, markings absent, granular with splinters; inner blaze orange, markings absent, granular with splinters; 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 absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

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) (producing a white exudate when torn); 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), equally broad throughout much of length, 5.5-15.0 cm, 3.0-4.0 cm, leaflets alternate, symmetric, terminal developing leaflet buds straight; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dull dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, scale-like, not fringed, large, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 7.0-9.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (5-8 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 5, free; stamens 5, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 50.0 (c.) mm long, 35.0 (c.) mm diam., blue (producing a white exudate when damaged), not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, nut; seeds 2, to about 5 mm long (4-5 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 3 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Morobe & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details