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

Gyrinops caudata (Gilg) Domke

Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem Vol. 11: 349 (1932)

Other Literature: Ding Hou, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 42 (1960) Fig. 15 (l-n).

Family: Thymelaeaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (less frequently to 27 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree (up to 20 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 55 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 11 m long, occasionally tree with several trunks); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey, rough; strongly aromatic; fibrous; fibrous.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present or absent (later (becoming glabrescent), hairs dense to sparse (with grey to white hairs).

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 slightly equally broad throughout much of length, 6.0-13.0 cm, 1.5-4.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation parallel-veined, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible or almost not visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface dull pale green, upper surface dark green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal or axillary, flowers arising from a single point (3-10-flowered), cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked (pedicel c. 5 mm long), flowers with many planes of symmetry, 3.0-4.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 2.5 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls (petals reduced to appendages between the calyx lobes) or petals absent (by misinterpretation), inner perianth yellow or yellowish green; 5, free (but joined to throat of floral tube at base of calyx lobes) or some or partly joined (by misinterpretation); stamens 5, almost absent or present (anthers subsessile), free of each other, joined to the perianth (joined to floral tube); ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary (very short), 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point (each fruit emerging through lateral slit in floral tube of old flower), fruit 10.0-15.0 mm long, 10.0-15.0 mm diam., green when immature, not spiny (sparsely hairy), non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 1-2, about 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 8 mm diam.).

Distribution: Gulf or Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

.

Notes: Notes Previously only known from West Papua (Indonesia).