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 trichophyllus A.C.Sm.

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 25: 251 (1944)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 130-131 (1981)

Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 27 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (up to c. 30 cm diam.); straight (bole 10-15 m long); buttresses buttresses present or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white, grey, or dark brown, rough or almost smooth, fissured or pustular, lenticels rounded/swelling (large); Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze greyish yellow, pink, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze greyish yellow, pink, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; 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 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, not swollen; leaves broadest above middle or broadest at or near middle, 4.0-10.0 cm, 2.0-6.0 cm; symmetric, entire to serrate to dentate (toothed), not dissected or lobed, rounded to obtuse or rarely acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green (with reddish brown hairs), upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense to sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 6.0-9.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white to cream-coloured; 5, free; stamens 35-55, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 12.0-14.0 mm long, dark blue or grey, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, not winged, broad (as wide as long) (including stone), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Central, Northern & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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