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 clemensii A.C.Sm.

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 22: 78 (1941)

Other Literature: W.J.J.O. de Wilde, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 433 (2000)

Family: Myristicaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Occasionally Large canopy tree or Small sub-canopy tree (up to 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 30 cm diam.); straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey, rough, fissured; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale yellow, red, or brown, markings absent; inner blaze pale yellow, red, or brown, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, flowing or not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to red, slightly 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 at or near middle or broadest below middle, (8.0-) 10.0-17.0 cm, (1.5-) 2.0-5.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acute, 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 (female flowers not seen), stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 4.0-6.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth yellow or red (yellowish (with rusty coloured hairs); 2-3 (-5), some or partly joined; stamens 8-30, absent, joined, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence single or arising from single point, fruit 47.0-55.0 mm long, orange or brown, not spiny, fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule (2-valved); seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (22-25 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long) (c. 20 mm diam.), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: East Sepik, Morobe, Western, Gulf, Northern & New Britain.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes D.B. Foreman 1978 Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea, vol. 1, p. 204 treated this species as a variety, namely, as Myristica lancifolia Poir. Var. clemensii (A.C.Sm.) J.Sinclair.