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

Litsea irianensis Kosterm.

Bibliographia Lauracearum 833 (1964)

Family: Lauraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to c. 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 50 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 20 m long); buttresses buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, rough, scaly or flaky, pustular, or slightly tessellated, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellow; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; spice-like; outer blaze yellow or yellowish brown, speckled, slightly fibrous or slightly granular without splinters; inner blaze yellow or yellowish brown, speckled, slightly fibrous or slightly granular without splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to black or red (pale (pinkish black), sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; 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, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest above middle, 10.0-16.0 cm, 5.5-6.5 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, sub acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers arising from a single point, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 3.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4 mm diameter); perianth present, intergrading from sepals to petals or with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth yellow; 3 (perianth consisting of 3 outer plus 3 inner parts that are frequently similar in shape and colour), some or partly joined (joined to form a tube); stamens 0-(female flowers, with 12 staminodes present); (male flowers, with an additional 3 staminodes)-9, present, free of each other, joined to the perianth (at base of perianth lobes); ovary superior (in male flowers absent; in female flowers present and closely surrounded by perianth tube), carpels solitary, locules 1; styles absent (male flowers) or solitary (female flowers), 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point, fruit red when mature or green (when immature (with white spots), not spiny, slightly fleshy, simple (receptacle enlarged and forming a cup around the base of the fruit), indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, not winged, broad (as wide as long).

Distribution: Morobe, Central, Milne Bay, New Britain, New Ireland & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details