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 oligantha Kalkman

Blumea Vol. 13: 83 (1965)

Other Literature: C. Kalkman, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 341-343 (1993)

Family: Rosaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (rarely more than 15 m high); Bole cylindrical; straight; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or dark brown, terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present, hairs dense to 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 at or near middle to equally broad throughout much of length, 4.0-11.0 (-14.0) cm, 1.0-4.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, sub acute or acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible or not visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense when young or sparse (hairs persistent on lower surface); absent or present (rarely (with 2 small, flat basal glands); domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy (narrowly triangular), not fringed (marginal glands present), large (2.5-5 mm long), persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 3.0-4.5 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 3 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pale yellow, pale orange, or pale brown; 6-12, free or some or partly joined (by misinterpretation (sepals and petals joined to mouth of floral tube); stamens 12-30, 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 10.0-13.0 mm long, red when immature, black, or dark purple, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long) (testa glabrous), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 4 mm diam.).

Distribution: Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands & Southern Highlands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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