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

Prunus dolichobotrys (Lauterb. & K.Schum.) Kalkman.

Blumea Vol. 13: 75 (1965)

Other Literature: C. Kalkman, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 334-335 (1993) Fig. 19.

Family: Rosaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (20-30 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (25-40 cm diam.); straight (bole 4-10 m long); buttresses buttresses present or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark dark grey or brown, rough, pustular, scaly or flaky, or fissured, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) orange or red; less than 25 mm thick, 3.0-6.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; almond-like; outer blaze orange, red, or brown, with stripes, granular with splinters; inner blaze orange, red, or brown, with stripes, granular with splinters; bark exudate (sap) present, 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 at or near middle or broadest below middle, (8.0-) 12.0-26.0 cm, 5.0-13.0 (-15.0) cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, rounded or broadly acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface dull green, upper surface dull dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; present (with 2-4, rarely to 6 basal glands that are flat to slightly hollowed); domatia absent; stipules present, free or joined (often (across petioles), laterally placed, not encircling the twig, hair-like or leafy (linear to linguiform), fringed (slightly ciliate), large (5.5-7.5 mm long), persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual (sometimes functionally male) or bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 3.0-4.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (2-3 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white, pale yellow, or cream-coloured; (4-) 5, free or some or partly joined (by misinterpretation (sepals and petals joined to mouth of floral tube); stamens 10-30, present, free of each other, free of the perianth or joined to the perianth (by misinterpretation (stamens joined to mouth of floral tube, separate from the petals and sepals); ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 8.0-12.0 mm long, 5.0-7.0 mm diam., red (greenish (probably immature), white when immature, or black, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1-2, to about 5 mm long (c. 5-6 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long) (testa glabrous), seed 1-10 mm diam. (4-6 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western, Gulf, Central, Milne Bay & Papuan Islands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes C. Kalkman in Flora Malesiana, Series 1, volume 11 (1993), p. 334 cites this species, together with its authority as Prunus dolichobotrys (K.Schum. & Lauterb.) Kalkman.