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 claviflorum (Roxb.) Wall. ex A.M.Cowan & Cowan

Trees of Northern Bengal 67 (1929)

Family: Myrtaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (mostly 5-20 m high) or Large canopy tree (sometimes up to c. 30 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 40 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 20 m long); buttresses buttresses absent or buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale grey or dark brown, almost smooth or rough, pustular or scaly or flaky, lenticels elongated laterally; Subrhytidome (under-bark) pale brown; less than 25 mm thick, 8.0-12.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellow (pale (straw-coloured) or brown, markings absent; inner blaze yellow (pale (straw-coloured) or brown, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) absent; 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 broadest at or near middle, (3.5-) 5.0-19.3 cm, 1.6-6.6 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins closed, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins present; leaves lower surface green or pale green, upper surface dark green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; present; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence rarely terminal, leaf-opposed, or on the trunk or branches, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0-26.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (to 5.6 mm); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white, green, or cream-coloured; 6-(falling after anthesis)-8, free; stamens 100, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2-3; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 12.0-14.0 mm long, 8.0-10.0 mm diam., red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, to about 5 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 3 mm).

Distribution: Morobe, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Western, Central & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

Notes: Notes This species is regarded as part of the segregate genus Acmenosperma by some researchers. This species is characterised as having clavate flower buds, flowers often arranged in clusters, and fruits that are cylindrical to pyriform; features characteristic of Acmenosperma. In this account of Syzygium claviflorum, a broad generic concept has been applied that regards Acmenosperma as a synonym of Syzygium.