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

Elaeocarpus sarcanthus Schltr.

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 54: 138 (1916)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 145-147 (1981) Fig. 33.

Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (18-28 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (up to c. 45 cm diam.); straight (bole 10-15 m long); buttresses buttresses absent (but often fluted at base); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots rarely stilt roots present or stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, slightly rough or smooth, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red or brown; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale yellow, pink, or pale brown, markings absent; inner blaze pale yellow, pink, or pale brown, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

Leaves: Leaves clustered at end of 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, swollen; leaves broadest at or near middle or broadest below middle, 9.0-18.0 cm, 4.0-6.5 cm; symmetric, entire or coarsely serrate to dentate (toothed), not dissected or lobed, acute or sometimes acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent or often present, scattered along midrib (yellow, glabrous); stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy (narrow), not fringed, small (4-5 mm long), persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary (mostly below the leaves), flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 7.0-9.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pale yellow, orange (pale (creamy), or pale brown; 5, free; stamens 30-55, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2 (-4); styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 13.0 (c.) mm long, green or blue to purple, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Southern Highlands, Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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