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

Nageia vitiensis (Seem.) Kuntze

Revisio Generum Plantarum 800 (1891)

Other Literature: D.J. de Laubenfels, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 394-395 (1988)

Family: Podocarpaceae
Conifer

Timber Group: Softwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 45 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (50-130 cm diam.); straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown (pale to dark), slightly rough or smooth, slightly fissured; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze pale pink, red, or brown, markings absent; inner blaze pale pink, red, or brown, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, not sticky; terminal buds 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, winged (lamina broadly decurrent on the petiole), attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest below middle or almost equally broad throughout much of length, 15.0-40.0 cm, 3.0-8.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse or sub acute, venation single-veined, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal or sometimes axillary, flowers single (female and sometimes male flowers) or flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, not stalked or stalked (shortly), flowers slightly asymmetric, 1.0-3.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 1 mm diam.); perianth absent; stamens 1, absent (anthers inserted on flat scale), free of each other; ovary superior, carpels solitary, locules 1; styles absent.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 10.0 (c.) mm long, 10.0 (c.) mm diam., red, not spiny, non-fleshy or fleshy, simple, indehiscent, naked seed only; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (13-16 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (8-10 mm diam.).

Distribution: Southern Highlands, Western, New Britain & New Ireland.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details