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

Sphenostemon pauciflorum (A.C.Sm.) Steenis & Erdtm.

Svensk Bot. Tidskr. Vol. 49: 22 (1955)

Family: Aquifoliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to c. 20 m high); Bole markedly fluted (c. 25 cm diam.); crooked; buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark brown, rough, pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green (as stripes) or red; less than 25 mm thick, 5.0-6.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze orange or red, with stripes, fibrous; inner blaze orange or red, with stripes, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to dark red, not sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present, hairs dense (indumentum silky).

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 above middle, 3.5-6.5 cm, 1.6-2.8 cm; symmetric, serrate to dentate (toothed), not dissected or lobed, obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves indumentum (hairs) present, sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, scale-like, not fringed, small, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on different plants, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white; free; stamens 8, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one); styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 20.0 (c.) mm long, 15.0 (c.) mm diam., red, not spiny, fleshy, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 2, about 10 mm long (12-15 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 10 mm wide).

Distribution: Morobe or Eastern Highlands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details