Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Copyright held by the authors, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Symplocos cochinchinensis subsp. leptophylla var. reginae (Brand) Noot.

Leiden Botanical Series Vol. 1: 162 (1975)

Field Characters: Small trees. Bole cylindrical; straight; buttresses absent; spines absent; aerial roots absent; stilt roots absent. Bark black or brown, almost smooth, slightly pustular; lenticels elongated laterally slight horizontal rings; subrhytidome green; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 3.0-4.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic; pleasant like freshly cut grass; outer blaze pale yellow cream-coloured or white, slightly speckled, smooth; inner blaze white or pale yellow cream-coloured, slightly speckled, smooth; exudate present, colourless, spotty, not changing colour on exposure to air, not sticky. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs.

Leaves: Spaced along branches <internodes readily visible>. Leaves spiral, simple; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; lamina broadest at or near middle, sometimes broadest below middle, or sometimes broadest above middle, 7.5-10.0 cm long, 3.0-6.0 cm wide; lamina symmetric, margin crenate sometimes teeth minute and indistinct or entire, not dissected or lobed, apex acuminate, venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins open <spaced far apart to easily see tertiary veins>, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; lower surface pale green, upper surface dark green, hairs present lower surface, somewhat dense or sparse; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence leaf-opposed <arising opposite a leaf, not between a leaf and a branch> or axillary <from between a leaf and branch>. Flowers on a branched axis; flowers bisexual, shortly stalked stalk c. 1 mm long, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic> perianth present; ovary inferior <seated below the petals and sepals; epigenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous>.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on branched axis. Fruit 15-20 mm long, 10.0 mm diam., fruit purplish blue, not spiny hairy to almost glabrous, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe.

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

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