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

Platea latifolia Bl.

Flora van Nederlandsch Indië 647 (1825)

Other Literature: H. Sleumer, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 11 (1971)

Family: Icacinaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (mostly 20-25 m high, rarely up to 30 m); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 45 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 20 m long); buttresses usually buttresses absent or buttresses present (sometimes buttresses up to 0.5 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey, rough, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick, 7.0-9.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; unpleasant; outer blaze yellow or yellowish brown, with stripes, granular without splinters; inner blaze yellow or yellowish brown, with stripes, granular without splinters; bark exudate (sap) present or absent, 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 present, star-like (stellate); stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present, hairs sparse.

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 below middle, 7.0-17.0 cm, 2.5-8.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface brown (with rusty brown hairs), upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present (on lower surface), indumentum (hairs) dense (coarse to touch); absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0 (c.) mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 5 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or yellow; 4, free; stamens 4, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles absent.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 25.0-40.0 mm long, 15.0-20.0 mm diam., purple or dark blue, not spiny, slightly fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1-2, much more than 10 mm long (at least 20 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 10 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details