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

Myristica buchneriana Warb.

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 13: 311 (1891)

Family: Myristicaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 35 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree (up to 20 m high); Bole markedly fluted (up to 60 cm diam.); straight (bole 10-15 m long); buttresses buttresses absent or buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark dark grey or brown, rough, pustular or tessellated, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick, 5.0-8.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze red or pink, with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze red or pink, with stripes, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, red (watery), flowing, colour not changing on exposure to air, slightly sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

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 below middle, 9.0-25.5 cm, 3.5-8.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or brown (with red-brown hairs), upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) sparse or dense; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers single, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0-6.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 4 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth red or brown (waxy); 2-3, some or partly joined; stamens 10 (c. (male flowers - exact number not known), absent, joined (to form a central staminal column), free of the perianth; ovary superior (female flowers), carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 35.0-45.0 mm long, 25.0 (c.) mm diam., red or brown (with rusty brown hairs), not spiny, slightly fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long, not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe & Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details