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 pergamaceum (Greves) Merr. & L.M.Perry

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 23: 250 (1942)

Family: Myrtaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to 20 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 30 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 5 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots present (sometimes up to c. 1 m high); Bark red, grey, or brown, slightly rough, scaly or flaky; Subrhytidome (under-bark) dark red; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale brown or yellow (pale (straw-coloured), markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pale brown or yellow (pale (straw-coloured), markings absent, fibrous; 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, 7.0-17.0 cm, 4.0-10.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or green (olive-green), upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; present; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary or terminal, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 15.0-20.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (12-15 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or cream-coloured (pale (sweetly aromatic); 4, free; stamens 100, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 2; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 30.0-55.0 mm long, 25.0-45.0 mm diam., red (often showy, dull or glossy), not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (c. 30 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (25-30 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern & Papuan Islands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details