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 trichophylla Kosterm.

Reinwardtia Vol. 8: 115 (1970)

Family: Lauraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to c. 15 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 25 cm diam.); straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown or dark grey; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; outer blaze brown; inner blaze brown; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent.

Leaves: Leaves clustered at end of 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 symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or brown, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) present (lower surface) or absent (upper surface), indumentum (hairs) sparse (with reddish brown hairs) or dense; 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; perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth yellow or white; 3 (perianth consisting of 3 outer plus 3 inner parts that are frequently similar in shape and colour), free; stamens 0-(female flowers); (male flowers)-9, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior (female flowers, absent in male flowers), carpels solitary, locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point, fruit 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: Western.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details