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

Lithocarpus celebicus (Miq.) Rehd.

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 1: 123 (1919)

Other Literature: E. Soepadmo, Flora Malesiana, Series 1, 374-375 (1972)

Family: Fagaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Major exportable hardwood

Field Characters: Emergent tree (up to 40 m high), Large canopy tree, or Small sub-canopy tree (10-33 m high); Bole cylindrical (60-100 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 20 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 1 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or pale brown, rough, pustular, scaly or flaky, slightly fissured, or tessellated, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) dark red or green; less than 25 mm thick, 12.0-25.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze brown or red, with stripes, granular without splinters; inner blaze brown or red, with stripes, granular without splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to black, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs present, star-like (stellate) (yellowish-brown to reddish on young branchlets); 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); petiole present (5-10 mm long), not winged (upper surface flattened), attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest at or near middle or broadest below middle, (7.0-) 12.0-16.0 (-20.0) cm, (2.5-) 4.0-6.0 (-8.0) cm; symmetric (occasionally asymmetric), entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate (abruptly or gradually so), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent (6-)8-10(-12) pairs), intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, yellowish brown, or slightly grey, upper surface green, slightly brown, or slightly grey, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense (minutely stellate); absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy (linear-acute), not fringed, large (3-4 X 0.5-1 mm), usually not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary or leaf-opposed (lateral), flowers single (female) or flowers on an unbranched axis (male in clusters of 3s; female rarely in 2s or 3s), cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, not stalked, flowers slightly asymmetric, 2.0-(female flowers smallest)-4.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (2-3 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth pale yellow; (4-) 6 (-7), all joined; stamens (8-) 12 (-15), present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2-6; styles free, 3.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 20.0-25.0 mm long, 20.0-22.0 mm diam., darkish brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, nut; 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. (12-15 mm diam.).

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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