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

Thespesia patellifera Borss.Waalk.

Blumea Vol. Supplement 4: 154 (1958)

Family: Malvaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Non-timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 25 m high, rarely to 40 m) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (30-40 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 20 cm long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark red, brownish grey, or brown, rough, fissured or pustular, lenticels elongated vertically; Subrhytidome (under-bark) pink; less than 25 mm thick, 10.0-13.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze white or yellow (pale (straw-coloured), with stripes (stripes brownish); inner blaze white or yellow (pale (straw-coloured), with stripes (stripes brownish); 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 present, disk-shaped (peltate) or star-like (stellate); stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) absent.

Leaves: Leaves 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 below middle, 10.0-20.0 cm, (7.0-) 9.0-15.0 cm; symmetric (shallowly cordate), entire, not dissected or lobed, acuminate (shortly), venation pinnate or at base palmate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or green, upper surface green (dull (or glossy), indumentum (hairs) absent or present (when young (near base and along midvein of lower surface), indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, large, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers single, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 10.0-12.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.) (10-12 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls (sepals completely joined together to form a collar, densely hairy, inner surface densely covered with long straight hairs), inner perianth yellow or red (dark at base); 5, free or some or partly joined (fused at base to staminal tube); stamens 100, present (of varing lengths), joined (forming a staminal tube), joined to the perianth (to base of corolla); ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 5; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence single, fruit 10.0-15.0 mm long, brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 100, about 10 mm long, not winged, broad (as wide as long), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe, Central, Northern & Papuan Islands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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