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

Cryptocarya minutifolia C.K.Allen

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 23: 146 (1942)

Family: Lauraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to 25 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 25 cm diam.); straight (bole c. 10 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; less than 25 mm thick; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

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 at or near middle, 1.8-2.5 cm, 1.0-1.3 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface greenish brown, upper surface dull green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked (shortly), flowers with many planes of symmetry, 4.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (3-4 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth yellow or green; 3 (outer perianth 3, inner perianth 3), free; stamens 9, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels solitary, locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Fruit 12.0-14.0 mm long, 12.0 (c.) mm diam., black or brown, not spiny, slightly fleshy or non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, about 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (8-10 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details