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

Mallotus chromocarpus Airy Shaw

Kew Bulletin Vol. 32: 403 (1978)

Other Literature: H.K. Airy Shaw, Kew Bulletin 64 (1978)

Family: Euphorbiaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (10-25 m high, sometimes up to 30 m); Bole cylindrical (20-25 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 12 m long); buttresses buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale brown, rough, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) brown or dark red; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-20.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze red or brown, with stripes, granular with splinters or fibrous; inner blaze red or brown, with stripes, granular with splinters or 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) present, hairs dense to sparse.

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, slightly attached to surface of leaf blade or attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest below middle, 4.3-15.3 cm, 2.6-9.9 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, sub acute, venation palmate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface greyish green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense; absent; domatia present, scattered along midrib (sometimes only in basal axils of secondary veins with midrib); stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis (side branches often short), cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, not stalked or stalked (shortly), flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0-7.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4-5 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pale yellow; 5, free; stamens 100 (male flowers), present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior (female flowers), carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles free, 5 (very short).

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 8.0 (c.) mm long, 10.0 (c.) mm diam., orange or yellow (pale (powdery), not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule (with 4 or 5 corners); seeds 4-5, to about 5 mm long (c. 5 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 3 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe, Northern & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details