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 excelsum Blume

Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlansch Indië 176 (1825)

Other Literature: D.J. Mabberley & A.M. Sing, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 109-111 (1995)

Family: Meliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 36 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 80 cm diam.); straight; buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 3 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, slightly rough or smooth, slightly scaly or flaky; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; resinous/linament-like; outer blaze red or brown, markings absent; inner blaze 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 absent, hairs sparse.

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; rachis present, absent, absent; leaves without a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets even - paripinnate), broadest below middle, 10.0-25.0 (-51.0) cm, 4.0-10.0 (-21.0) cm, leaflets opposite, symmetric; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent or present, indumentum (hairs) sparse (reddish hairs, especially on veins of lower surface); absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary (to supra-axillary), flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual or bisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 6.0-15.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (5-6 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white, pale pink, or cream-coloured; 4 (-5), some or partly joined; stamens 8 (-10), absent, joined (to form a staminal tube), free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 3-4; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 40.0-50.0 (-75.0) mm long, brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 1-4, much more than 10 mm long (20-25 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (12-15 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Gulf & Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details