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

Neonauclea lanceolata (Blume) Merr. subsp. gracilis (Vidal.) C.E.Ridsdale

Blumea Vol. 34: 225-226 (1989) Fig. 19 (map).

Family: Rubiaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to c. 25 m high); Bole cylindrical; straight; buttresses buttresses absent or buttresses present (sometimes buttresses short); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown or grey, rough, scaly or flaky or cracked (vertically); Subrhytidome (under-bark) pink; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze white or pink, markings absent; inner blaze pink or white, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) absent; 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, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves rarely broadest above middle or usually broadest at or near middle, (3.0-) 7.0-12.0 (-20.0) cm, (2.0-) 4.0-7.0 (-8.0) cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, joined, joined across twigs, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, large (mostly 4-8 mm long, rarely as long as 10 mm), not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers arising from a single point, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked (shortly (subsessile), flowers with many planes of symmetry; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth cream-coloured or white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 5, present (short), free of each other, joined to the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point (forming a globular fruiting head 10-12 mm diam., sometimes as small as 7 mm or as large as 15 mm diam.), fruit 3.0-5.0 mm long, 3.0 (c.) mm diam., pale brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, multiple, dehiscent (each fruitlet), capsule (each fruitlet splitting into 4 values); seeds 1 (per fruitlet; many per globular fruiting head), to about 5 mm long, winged (shortly at both ends), narrow (longer than wide) (somewhat bilaterally flattened), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 2 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Central, Milne Bay & Papuan Islands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details