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

Syzygium alatum (Lauterb.) Diels

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 57: 411 (1922)

Other Literature: T.G. Hartley & L.M. Perry, Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 208 (1973)

Family: Myrtaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (10- 20 m high, sometimes a shrub to 2.5 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 30 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 grey, yellow, or brown (often dark brown), slightly rough, scaly or flaky (sometimes papery, often powdery); less than 25 mm thick, 5.0-8.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pink, pale yellow, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pink, pale yellow, or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present or absent, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to pale purple, not sticky; 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, winged (by misinterpretation (internodes between leaves winged, from base of petioles) or not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves rounded, 0.3-0.6 cm, 0.3-0.6 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse or rounded, venation pinnate, secondary veins closed, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins present; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; present; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, flowers single, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 3.0-5.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or yellow (greenish (pale); usually 4-5, free; stamens 10-16, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one); styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 4.0-5.0 mm long, 4.0-5.0 mm diam., red or purple, not spiny, slightly fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long (3-4 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 3 mm diam.).

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

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details