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 versteegii (Lauterb.) Merr. & L.M.Perry

Journal of the Arnold Arboretum Vol. 23: 256 (1942)

Family: Myrtaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (up to c. 15 m high) or Large canopy tree (occasionally up to c. 35 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 45 cm diam.); crooked or straight (almost bole usually short, sometimes up to 20 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 1 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white, grey, or brown, slightly rough or smooth, scaly or flaky; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green, mottled, pale red, or pale brown; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-12.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pink or pale brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pink or pale brown, 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 above middle or broadest at or near middle, 28.0-50.0 cm, 12.0-19.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins present; leaves lower surface pale green, upper surface green (sub-glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence on the trunk or branches (arising from branchlets), flowers arising from a single point, cones absent; flowers bisexual, not stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0-15.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (12-15 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth pink; 5, 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 arising from single point, fruit 50.0-55.0 mm long, 25.0-30.0 mm diam., dark red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (30-40 mm long), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam. (c. 30 mm diam.).

Distribution: East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western, Gulf, Central & Northern.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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