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

Falcatifolium papuanum de Laub.

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 50: 312 (1969)

Family: Podocarpaceae
Conifer

Timber Group: Softwood

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to 22 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 40 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 11 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, rough, irregularly fissured or pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) dark red; less than 25 mm thick, 4.0-7.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze red or brown, markings absent, corky; inner blaze red or brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, red, flowing, colour not changing on exposure to air, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

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 absent; leaves broadest below middle, 1.0-2.0 cm, 0.2-0.4 cm; symmetric (more or less falcate, sickle-shape), entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate or long-tapering, venation single-veined, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface dark green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal or axillary, flowers single (female 'cones') or flowers on an unbranched axis (male 'cones'), cones absent (although often referrred to as 'cones'); flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, not stalked, flowers slightly asymmetric, 2.0-4.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 3 mm diam.); perianth absent; stamens 1, absent (anthers inserted on a flat scale), free of each other; ovary superior, carpels solitary, locules 1; styles absent.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 5.0-6.0 mm long, 4.0 (c.) mm diam., brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple (often referred to as a cone), indehiscent, naked seed only; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long (6-7 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 6 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands & Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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