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 rubiginosa K.Schum.

Die Flora von Kaiser Wilhelms Land 84 (1884)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea 97-100 (1978) Fig. 21-45.

Family: Combretaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Major exportable hardwood

Field Characters: Emergent tree or Large canopy tree (20-35 m high); Bole cylindrical (to slightly irregular, 30-60 cm diam.); straight (mostly bole 10-25 m long); buttresses buttresses present (mostly to 1 m high, rarely to 3 m); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or brown, rough, fissured (shallow and vertical) or scattered pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze pale yellow, slightly pink, or yellowish brown, markings absent; inner blaze pale yellow, slightly pink, or yellowish brown, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) present, colourless, not readily flowing (spotty), colour not changing on exposure to air, not 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.

Leaves: Leaves clustered at end of branches or few 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, 7.0-13.0 cm, (4.5-) 5.0-8.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, obtuse, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or brown (because of small brown hairs), upper surface green, indumentum (hairs) absent or present (often reddish brown), indumentum (hairs) dense or sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers unisexual and bisexual, unisexual with male and female flowers on the same plant, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 2.0-3.0 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 30.0-50.0 mm long, red or brown (because of reddish brown hairs), not spiny, slightly non-fleshy or fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western, Gulf, Central, Northern & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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