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

Gonystylus macrophyllus (Miq.) Airy Shaw

Kew Bulletin Vol. 1947: 9 (1947)

Family: Thymelaeaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (20-30 m high); Bole cylindrical (35-70 cm diam.); straight (bole 15-17 m long); buttresses buttresses absent or buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown (greyish brown), rough, scaly or flaky, slightly fissured, or slightly pustular, lenticels irregular or lenticels rounded/swelling; Subrhytidome (under-bark) orange or brown; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze white, yellow (pale (cream-coloured), pink, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze white, yellow (pale (cream-coloured), pink, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present or absent, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to brown, not 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 present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest at or near middle or sometimes equally broad throughout much of length, 12.0-31.0 cm, 5.5-12.5 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, sometimes obtuse or acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface dull green, upper surface dull dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; present; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 4.0-5.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 5 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth cream-coloured or white; 5, free; stamens 20-40, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 30.0-55.0 mm long, 25.0 (c.) mm diam., brown or grey, not spiny, slightly fleshy or non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 3-5, about 10 mm long, not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: Madang, Morobe, Western, Northern, Milne Bay & Manus.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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