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

Finschia chloroxantha Diels

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 54: 204 (1916)

Other Literature: D.B. Foreman, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 229-231 (1995) Fig. 60.

Family: Proteaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (12-20 m high); Bole cylindrical (15-35 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 11 m long); buttresses sometimes buttresses present or usually buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots often stilt roots present or usually stilt roots absent; Bark dark brown or almost black, rough, finely fissured or strongly pustular, lenticels rounded/swelling; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze with two layers; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze red, dark brown, or almost black, with stripes; inner blaze pale yellow, with stripes; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or later absent, hairs dense.

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 present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest above middle, broadest at or near middle, or broadest below middle, 9.5-42.0 cm, 2.6-13.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, rounded, obtuse, or acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green (dull (to subglossy) or green, indumentum (hairs) usually absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary or on the trunk or branches, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with one plane of symmetry, 6.0-10.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth yellow (golden-coloured); 4, some or partly joined; stamens 4, absent, free of each other, joined to the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 30.0-55.0 mm long, yellow to black, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, follicle; seeds 2, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Western, Central, Northern, Papuan Islands, New Britain, Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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