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 purpurea (Roxb.) Merr.

Interpr. Herb. Amboin. 483 (1917)

Other Literature: C.E. Ridsdale, Blumea (1979)

Family: Rubiaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Major exportable hardwood Tradename: Labula

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (10-40 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (up to 90 cm diam.); crooked (bole usually 25-30 m long); buttresses slightly buttresses present or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, rough, fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) brown; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze pale yellow or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pale yellow or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to pale brown, not sticky; terminal buds not 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 broadest at or near middle, 18.0-32.0 cm, 11.0-18.0 cm; symmetric (to slightly asymmetric), entire, not dissected or lobed, acute or acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green (whitish to yellowish green), upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent (on upper surface) or present (on lower surface (hairs white), indumentum (hairs) dense; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, encircling the twig, collar-like, not fringed, large, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers arising from a single point, cones absent; flowers bisexual, not stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 5, absent, free of each other, joined to the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arising from single point, fruit 30.0-50.0 mm long, yellow (greenish when immature) or brown (greenish-brown), not spiny, fleshy, multiple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 1 (per fruitlet; many per globular fruiting head), barely visible (to 1 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed less than 1 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western Highlands, Gulf, Central, Milne Bay & New Britain.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes Previously known as Anthocephalus chinensis (Lamk) Rich. ex Walp.