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

Lophopetalum torricellense Loes.

Nachträge zur Flora der Deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Südsee 303

Other Literature: Ding Hou, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 271 (1962)

Family: Celastraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 30 m high); Bole cylindrical; straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white or grey, rough, fissured or rarely pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) orange or rarely red; more than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze pink or rarely red, with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze pink or rarely red, with stripes, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, 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 sometimes broadest at or near middle or equally broad throughout much of length, (3.0-) 4.5-8.0 cm, (1.5-) 2.5-4.5 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, stalked, flowers with one plane of symmetry, 5.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 5, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 3; styles absent or solitary (very short), 1 when present.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 60.0-80.0 mm long, green or brown when mature, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, follicle; seeds 4-10, much more than 10 mm long (30-35 mm long, including wing), winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 10 mm across).

Distribution: Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western, Milne Bay, Papuan Islands, New Ireland & Manus.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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