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

Horsfieldia subtilis (Miq.) Warb.

Nova Acta Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae Germanicae Naturae Curiosorum. Abhandlungen der Kaiserlichen Leopoldinisch-Carolinischen Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Vol. 68: 286 (1897) Fig. 23.

Other Literature: W.J.J.O. de Wilde, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 198-201 (2000) Fig. 26 (g & h).

Family: Myristicaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (2-10 m high, rarely to 20 m); Bole cylindrical (10-30 cm diam., rarely greater); straight (bole short, up to c. 2 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, slightly rough, fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red or brown; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellow (pale (straw-coloured) or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze yellow (pale (straw-coloured) or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, red or brown, flowing or not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs present (on inflorescences) or absent, star-like (stellate) (scale-like); stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or later absent, hairs dense to sparse (with grey-brown 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 to equally broad throughout much of length, 10.0-20.0 (-28.0) cm, 2.5-7.0 (-9.0) cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface dull green, indumentum (hairs) absent or present when young, indumentum (hairs) dense or sparse (on lower surface); absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry or slightly asymmetric, 1.3-2.5 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (1-2 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth pale yellow; 2, some or partly joined or all joined (almost (forming a shortly 2-lobed, globose to cup-shaped perianth); stamens 18-24, absent, joined (to form a central column), free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles absent.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 10.0 (-14.0) mm long, yellow, orange, or black (almost (when dry), not spiny, non-fleshy (leathery) or slightly fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (c. 15 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

Notes: Notes Including Horsfieldia subtilis var. subtilis and var. aucta.