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

Chisocheton ceramicus (Miq.)C.DC.

Monographiae Phanerogamarum Prodromi nunc Continuato, nunc Revisio Auctoribus Alphonso et Casimir de Candolle Aliisque Botanicis Ultra Memoratis Vol. 1: 533 (1878)

Other Literature: P.F. Stevens, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 139 (1978) Fig. 68.

Family: Meliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 40 cm diam.); often crooked or straight (sometimes bole up to 15 m long); buttresses buttresses present (usually buttresses up to 3 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark sometimes grey or reddish brown, slightly rough, scaly or flaky (in irregular strips), slightly fissured, or pustular (slightly (dimpled), lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) pink, mottled, or grey; less than 25 mm thick, 6.0-8.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze pale pink, red, or brown, markings absent; inner blaze pale pink, red, or brown, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, white/milky, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or later absent, hairs dense.

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 or slightly swollen; rachis present, absent, absent; leaves with a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets odd - imparipinnate), broadest at or near middle, (4.0-) 10.0-32.0 cm, (2.7-) 5.5-13.5 cm, leaflets opposite, asymmetric, terminal developing leaflet buds curled back on itself; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent when mature or present (when immature (minutely hairy), indumentum (hairs) dense or sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 13.0-18.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth yellowish white, pale yellow, or pink to grey; 4-6, some or partly joined; stamens (4-) 5 (-6), absent, joined (to form a staminal tube), free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2-3; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 30.0-40.0 mm long, orange to red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent or slightly dehiscent, capsule; seeds 1-(dark reddish brown)-3, much more than 10 mm long (20-24 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed more than 10 mm diam. (12-15 mm diam.).

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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