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

Gymnostoma papuana (S.Moore) L.A.S.Johnson

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden Vol. 6(1): 84 (1982)

Other Literature: J.J. Havel, Forest Botany, Part 2 Botanical Taxonomy (1975)

Family: Casuarinaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (40 m high); Bole cylindrical (130 cm diam.); straight (bole c. 30 m high); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale brown, rough, scaly or flaky or fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze red, with stripes, granular with splinters; inner blaze red, with stripes, granular with splinters; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, whorled (with more than two leaves at one node of a branchlet), 4, simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole absent; leaves triangular broadest below middle, 0.4-0.6 cm, 0.1 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse or sub acute, venation parallel-veined, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or yellow (branchlets dull green), upper surface green or yellow, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on an unbranched axis, flowers arranged in a cone (strobilus); flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, not stalked, flowers slightly asymmetric, 2.0-3.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 1 mm diam.); perianth present (male flowers; absent in female flowers), with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar (male flowers only), inner perianth cream-coloured (styles red); 1, free; stamens 1, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles free, 2 (branched).

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, arrangement of fruits present (fruitlets fused together by the enlarged and hardened scales to form a cone-like structure), cone 10.0-11.0 mm, 10.0-15.0 (-20.0) mm, pale brown; seeds 1 (per cone scale (many per cone), barely visible (to 1 mm long) (excluding wing), winged, broad (as wide as long), seed less than 1 mm diam.

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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