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 complanata K.Schum.

Die Flora von Kaiser Wilhelms Land 83 (1889)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 74-77 (1978) Fig. 30-31.

Family: Combretaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Major exportable hardwood

Field Characters: Emergent tree (up to 55 m high) or Large canopy tree (20-30 m high); Bole cylindrical (c. 75 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 31 m long); buttresses usually buttresses present; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or greyish brown, slightly rough, slightly fissured; Subrhytidome (under-bark) rarely white, yellow, green, red, or mottled; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-15.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale pink, red, or brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze slightly yellow, pale pink, red, or brown, markings absent, fibrous; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

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

Leaves: Leaves almost never clustered at end of branches or spaced along 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, not swollen; leaves sometimes broadest above middle or usually broadest at or near middle, 5.0-11.0 (-13.0) cm, 1.5-5.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, acute or often acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green (glossy) or slightly brown, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent when mature or present when immature, indumentum (hairs) dense to sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual and bisexual, stalked (shortly), flowers with many planes of symmetry, 1.5-2.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.); perianth present, with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar, inner perianth white; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 10, present, free of each other, joined to the perianth; ovary inferior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 14.0-21.0 mm long, red, not spiny, non-fleshy and fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, about 10 mm long (including dense hard stone), not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Southern Highlands, Western, Central, Northern, Milne Bay, New Britain, New Ireland, Manus & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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