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

Schizomeria clemensiae L.M.Perry

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 157: (1949)

Family: Cunoniaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Commercial hardwood Tradename: White birch

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 20 cm diam.); straight (bole 18-25 m long); buttresses buttresses present or buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark greyish green, grey, or brown, slightly rough or smooth, slightly fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red or brown; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-12.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze red or brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze red or brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, red, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, opposite (in pairs, opposite one another on the branchlet), simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves slightly broadest below middle, 10.0-18.0 cm, 7.0-8.0 (-11.0) cm; symmetric, crenate, not dissected or lobed, sometimes obtuse or acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface dark green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, joined across twigs, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, small, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 4.0-5.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4-5 mm diameter); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 5, free; stamens 10, present, free of each other, free of the perianth (join to disc at base of petals); ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 25.0-45.0 mm long, 20.0-40.0 mm diam., green or pale brown, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1-2, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, narrow (longer than wide).

Distribution: Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands & Southern Highlands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

<LAE228069; LAE17420>.