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

Parartocarpus venenosa Becc.

Nelle Foreste di Borneo 632 (1902)

Family: Moraceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to c. 27 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 60 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 18 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, cream-coloured, or red (often patches), rough, finely fissured or pustular, lenticels rounded/swelling; Subrhytidome (under-bark) orange (streaks) or white; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-20.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale red or pink, with stripes (orange), fibrous; inner blaze pale red or pink, with stripes (orange), fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, white/milky, flowing, colour not changing on exposure to air, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present, hairs sparse to dense.

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 above middle, (10.0-) 14.0-20.0 cm, (4.5-) 6.0-10.0 cm; symmetric (to very slightly asymmetric), entire, not dissected or lobed, sub rounded or slightly acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) sparsely present or absent, indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, small or large (up to 5 mm long), not persistent (soon deciduous).

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers arising from a single point (female flowers) or flowers on an unbranched axis (male flowers), cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, not stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 1.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (up to c. 1 mm diam.); perianth absent; stamens 1, present, free of each other; ovary inferior, carpels solitary, locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence single (multiple fruit) or arising from single point ('fruitlets'), fruit 20.0-45.0 mm long, 20.0-45.0 mm diam., brown, not spiny, fleshy, multiple (syncarp), indehiscent, berry (syncarp); seeds 100 (fruit irregular in shape as seeds mature from base to apex of syncarp), about 10 mm long (8-10 mm long, protruding from syncarpous fruit), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (6-8 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Central, Northern, Milne Bay, New Britain, New Ireland, Manus & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

Notes: Notes This treatment included Parartocarpus papuana S.Moore and Parartocarpus venenosa Becc. subsp. papuanus.