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 megalocarpa Exell

Journal of Botany Vol. 73: 132 (1935)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 89 (1978) Fig. 39-40.

Family: Combretaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Major exportable hardwood

Field Characters: Emergent tree (up to 45 m high), Large canopy tree, or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (up to 100 cm diam.); crooked (sometimes bole less than 5 m long) or straight (bole 10-20 m long); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark red (patches), grey, or brown, rough, scaly or flaky (soft, with small flakes, powdery); Subrhytidome (under-bark) red (pale to dark); less than 25 mm thick, 5.0-10.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale yellow or yellowish brown, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze pale yellow or yellowish brown, markings absent, fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to pale brown, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present when young or later absent, hairs dense to sparse.

Leaves: Leaves clustered at end of branches to 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 broadest above middle, 9.0-18.0 cm, 5.0-9.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse to acute, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

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

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 40.0-80.0 mm long, brown, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western, Central, Northern, Milne Bay, Papuan Islands & Bougainville.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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