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 sphaerosperma A.C.Sm.

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 22: 71 (1941)

Other Literature: D.B. Foreman, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 210 (1978)

Family: Myristicaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood

Field Characters: Occasionally Large canopy tree or Small sub-canopy tree (10-30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 50 cm diam.); straight (bole 12-15 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, rough or smooth, slightly fissured or slightly peeling; Subrhytidome (under-bark) brown; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellow (pale (cream-coloured), markings absent; inner blaze yellow (pale (cream-coloured), markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, flowing or not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to brown or red, not sticky or slightly sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or absent, hairs sparse (hairs powdery).

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 equally broad throughout much of length, (10.0-) 16.0-23.0 (-32.0) cm, (4.0-) 6.0-12.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or brown (with brown hairs), upper surface green or grey (greenish (silver-green coloured), indumentum (hairs) absent when mature or present (when immature (silvery or cinnamon-coloured scales), indumentum (hairs) dense to sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers arising from a single point to flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth yellow or yellowish brown; 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 arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 60.0 (c.) mm long, brown (with brown hairs), not spiny, fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule (2-valved); seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (30-35 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (30-35 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe, Western & Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

.