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

Dysoxylum arborescens (Blume) Miq.

Annales Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi Vol. 4: 24 (1868)

Other Literature: D.J. Mabberley & A.M. Sing, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 103-105 (1995) Fig. 16.

Family: Meliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 20 m high, rarely to 30 m); Bole cylindrical (up to 45 cm diam.); straight (bole c. 9 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to c. 1 m high) or buttresses absent (slightly spurred); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey, pale brown, or brownish black, slightly rough or smooth, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze white, pale yellow, pale brown, or slightly green, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze white, pale yellow, pale brown, or slightly green, 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) absent (small lenticels present).

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 or swollen (slightly (at base); leaves pinnate (unbranched with more than three leaflets); petiolule not swollen or swollen (slightly (at base); rachis present, absent, absent; leaves without a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets even - paripinnate), broadest at or near middle, 8.5-18.0 cm, 3.0-8.2 cm, leaflets opposite, symmetric; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface dull green, upper surface green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 11.0 (c.) mm long; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or pale green; (4-) 5 (-6), some or partly joined; stamens 10 (-11), absent, joined (to form a staminal tube), free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules (3-) 4-5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 30.0 (c.) mm long, red (pale (bright), not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 1-6, much more than 10 mm long (15-18 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (c. 15 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern, New Britain, New Ireland & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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