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

Podocarpus neriifolius D.Don

in Lambert, A.B., A Description of the genus Pinus, edition 1 Vol. 2: 21 (1824)

Family: Podocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Softwood Tradename: Lowland Podocarp, Brown Pine

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 40 m high); Bole cylindrical (60-100 cm diam.) or sometimes markedly fluted; straight (bole up to 30 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale grey, pale brown, or black, rough, scaly or flaky, peeling (rarely in narrow strips), or pustular, lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) dark red or black (rarely with lighter pinkish stripes); less than 25 mm thick, 4.0-10.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze red or brown, markings absent, fibrous or granular without splinters; inner blaze red or brown, markings absent, fibrous or granular without splinters; bark exudate (sap) present or absent (sometimes or appearing so), colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, 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, 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 or equally broad throughout much of length, 6.0-11.0 cm, 1.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse or sub acute, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers single (female flowers) or flowers on an unbranched axis (male flowers), cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, not stalked (male flowers) or stalked (female flowers), flowers slightly asymmetric or with one plane of symmetry, 0.5-1.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (less than 1 mm diam.); perianth absent (actually present but reduced to scales); stamens 1, absent, free of each other; ovary superior, carpels solitary, locules 1; styles absent.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 10.0-12.0 mm long, 8.0-10.0 mm diam., dark blue, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, nut; seeds 1, about 10 mm long (10-13 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (9-10 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern, Milne Bay, New Britain, New Ireland & Manus.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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