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

Terminalia archipelagi Coode

Kew Bulletin Vol. 23: 299 (1969)

Family: Combretaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (30-37 m high); Bole cylindrical (45-80 cm diam.); straight (bole 18-20 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to c. 1 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots sometimes stilt roots present or stilt roots absent; Bark yellow, grey, or brown, rough, fissured, peeling, or sometimes pustular, lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) red; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-12.0; bark blaze with two layers; faintly to non-aromatic; pleasant; outer blaze rarely white or pink, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present or absent, colourless, flowing or not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

Leaves: Leaves clustered at end of branches, spiral (leaves occurring singly at a node and arranged spirally up the branchlet), simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, swollen; leaves broadest above middle, 20.0-26.0 cm, 6.0-9.0 cm; very asymmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, rounded or obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green (with dull rusty-orange hairs), upper surface green (sub-glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 5.0 (c.) mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 8-10, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles free, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 60.0-80.0 mm long, brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (25-30 mm long), winged (wing 10-18 mm long laterally, 15-25 mm long towards ends), narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (10-12 mm diam.).

Distribution: Morobe, New Britain, New Ireland & Manus.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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