Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Copyright held by the authors, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Gmelina papuana Bakh.

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 10: 71-72 (1929)

Field Characters: Small trees up to 25 m high or large trees. Bole cylindrical 50 cm diam.; straight; buttresses present 1 m high; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark brown or grey, rough, tessellated or slightly pustular; lenticels irregular; subrhytidome pale yellow; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 5.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze brown or orange, speckled, fibrous; inner blaze brown or orange, speckled, fibrous; exudate present, colourless, spotty, changing colour on exposure to air, to dark brown, slightly sticky. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig hairy tomentose; hairs dense.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves opposite, simple; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, swollen <at tip, or base, or both> lamina broadest below middle, 11.5-27.0 cm long, 12.5-25.0 cm wide; lamina symmetric to slightly asymmetric, margin entire, not dissected or lobed, apex obtuse or rounded, venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins open <spaced far apart to easily see tertiary veins>, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; lower surface pale green veins pale yellow, upper surface pale green or green, hairs present, dense; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal <at branch ends>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, stalked, with one plane of symmetry <zygomorphic> perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals, white or pale blue; inner perianth 5, some or partly joined 5-lobed; stamens 4, filaments present, free of each other, joined to perianth <epipetalous/episepalous> ovary superior <seated above petals and sepals; hypogenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous>, locules 4; styles solitary <including joined together>, 1.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit 35 mm long, 30.0 mm diam., fruit blue, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, berry (1-seeded). Seeds 1, about 10 mm long, much more than 10 mm long 4-20 mm long, or to about 5 mm long, not winged, longer than wide, >10 mm diam. about 15 mm diam.

Distribution: Madang.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

Notes: Formerly included in the family Verbenaceae, now regarded as part of the Lamiaceae subfamily Viticoideae.