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

Sericolea micans Schltr.

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 54: 98 (1916)

Other Literature: Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 160 Fig. 36.

Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (25-35 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree (up to 15 m high); Bole cylindrical (c. 50 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 10 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown or grey, rough or almost smooth, pustular, lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellow or green; less than 25 mm thick, 8.0-10.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze yellow, with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze yellow, with stripes, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to brown or purple, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs present, star-like (stellate); 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 broadest below middle, (3.0-) 4.0-8.0 (-9.0) cm, (0.6-) 0.8-1.4 (-1.7) cm; symmetric, finely serrate to dentate (toothed), not dissected or lobed, long-tapering, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface red (old leaves), golden (or silvery hairy), or slightly yellow, upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense (on lower surface); absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, scale-like, not fringed, large (c. 3 mm long), persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 2.0-3.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (c. 3 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; 4-5, free; stamens 11-14, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 8.0-10.0 mm long, 8.0 (c.) mm diam., black or dark red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, berry; seeds 1-4, to about 5 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 4 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details