Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Copyright held by the authors, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Pouteria lauterbachiana (H.J.Lam) Baehni

Candollea Vol. 9: 314 (1942)

Field Characters: Small trees 10-12 m high. Bole cylindrical 20 cm diam., sometimes slightly fluted; straight bole 6 m long; buttresses absent or occasionally present; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark brown or grey, rough, slightly scaly or flaky, pustular, or slightly fissured; lenticels irregular; subrhytidome red; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 5.0-6.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale red or pink, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pink or pale red, markings absent, fibrous; exudate present, white, spotty, not changing colour on exposure to air, sticky. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves sub opposite, simple; petiole present petiole about 15 mm long, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; lamina broadest at or near middle, 15.0-24.0 cm long, 6.5-8.5 cm wide; lamina almost symmetric to slightly asymmetric, margin entire, not dissected or lobed, apex acuminate, venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins open <spaced far apart to easily see tertiary veins>, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; lower surface pale green, upper surface green, hairs absent; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary <from between a leaf and branch>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, not stalked, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, 5.0-6.0 mm long, small (< or =10 mm diam.) 5-6 mm diam.; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals sepals with brown hairs, white, yellowish brown, or yellow; inner perianth 5, some or partly joined forming a tube with 5 lobes; stamens 5, filaments present, free of each other, joined to perianth <epipetalous/episepalous> ovary superior <seated above petals and sepals; hypogenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous> styles solitary <including joined together>, 1.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit purple or brown, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe. Seeds 1-2, not winged.

Distribution: Morobe, Central, Milne Bay, Western Highlands & New Britain.

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