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

Lagerstroemia archeriana F.M.Bailey subsp. archeriana

Flora of Australia Vol. 18: 8 (1990)

Family: Lythraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (to 15 m high, or large shrub); Bole cylindrical (up to 25 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 3 m long, often branching from near base); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white, green, pale red, or grey, slightly rough or smooth, slightly pitted; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick, 4.0-5.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellowish white, pale pink, or pale green, markings absent; inner blaze yellowish white, pale pink, or pale green, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to pale purple, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs present or absent (or appearing absent, or mostly with simple hairs only; hairs often soon deciduous on peduncles and branchlets), star-like (stellate) (more or less mostly irregularly so); stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present or absent (soon often), hairs dense to sparse.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, sub opposite (in pairs, opposite one another on the branchlet), simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest below middle, 9.0-13.0 cm, 4.5-7.5 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface dull pale green, upper surface green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent (upper surface) or present (lower surface), indumentum (hairs) dense to sparse (hairs stellate); absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal to axillary (towards end of branchlets), flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 15.0-20.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (12-15 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth bright pink, red, or purple; 5-6, free; stamens 70-100, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5-6; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 12.0-20.0 mm long, brownish red, brown, or brownish grey, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 100, to about 5 mm long (3-5 mm long), winged (wing 5-7 mm long), narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 2 mm diam.).

Distribution: Madang, Morobe (Cultivated possibly), Western Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western & Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details