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

Helicia albiflora Sleumer

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 70: 138 (1939)

Other Literature: D.B. Foreman, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 240-241 (1995)

Family: Proteaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical; straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale grey or brown, slightly rough, fissured or slightly pustular; bark blaze consisting of one layer; outer blaze brown; inner blaze brown; bark exudate (sap) absent; 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 to sparse (rufous).

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, 90.0-200.0 cm, 50.0-90.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, sometimes rounded, broadly acute, or acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent when mature or present when immature, indumentum (hairs) dense to sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary to on the trunk or branches, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with one plane of symmetry, 25.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth white (cream-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 40.0 (c.) mm long, dark blue, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent or slightly dehiscent, follicle; seeds 1 (-2), much more than 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Central & Northern.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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