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

Hibiscus papuodendron Kosterm.

Reinwardtia Vol. 5: 325 (1960)

Family: Malvaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 30 m high, rarely to 40 m) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (to slightly irregular, up to 1 m diam., less frequently to 1.5 m); crooked or straight (bole 10-20 m long); buttresses buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark greenish grey or brown, rough, fissured or slightly pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellow, green, or mottled; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze slightly with two layers; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze white or pale yellow, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze white (yellowish (straw-coloured), markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, flowing, colour not changing on exposure to air, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs present, disk-shaped (peltate) (dense); 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) (smelling like raw cabbage when crushed); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest at or near middle or equally broad throughout much of length, 9.0-12.0 cm, 4.0-6.0 cm; symmetric (slightly cordate), entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse or sub acute, venation pinnate or at base palmate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or yellow (rough to touch), upper surface dark green (dull (sometimes grey-green), indumentum (hairs) absent (but densely covered with peltate scales); absent; domatia present, scattered along midrib; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, large, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal or axillary (in distal axils), flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 20.0-30.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (20-30 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls (with sepals 5-lobed), inner perianth white or at base purple; 5, free; stamens 100, present (of varing lengths), joined (forming a staminal tube around the style), free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 15.0 (c.) mm long, brown (pale (slightly straw-coloured), not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 100.

Distribution: East Sepik, Madang, Morobe & Eastern Highlands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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