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

Vatica rassak (Korth.) Blume

Museum Botanicum Lugduno-Batavum sive stirpium Exoticarum, Novarum vel Minus Cognitarum ex Vivis aut Siccis Brevis Expositio et Descriptio Vol. 2: 31 (1852)

Other Literature: P.S. Ashton, Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak 381-382 (2004)

Family: Dipterocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (15-30 m high) or Small sub-canopy tree; Bole cylindrical (20-80 cm diam.); straight (bole 5-20 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark white, grey, or brown (greyish to greenish brown), smooth; Subrhytidome (under-bark) brown; less than 25 mm thick, 6.0-8.0; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellow or brown, markings absent, slightly fibrous; inner blaze yellow or brown, markings absent, slightly fibrous; bark exudate (sap) present, white/milky or pale yellow, not readily flowing (spotty), colour changing on exposure to air, to golden-coloured, sticky; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; 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 at or near middle or equally broad throughout much of length, (11.0-) 15.0-30.0 cm, 7.0-10.0 cm; symmetric, entire, not dissected or lobed, occasionally obtuse or acuminate (shortly), venation palmate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface pale green or greenish grey, upper surface dark green (glossy), indumentum (hairs) present; absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free, laterally placed, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, large, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 8.0-12.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (4-6 mm diameter); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white or cream-coloured; 5, free; stamens 5, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 1; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 40.0-50.0 mm long, 25.0-30.0 mm diam., brown (with persistent green calyx), not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule (fruit often regarded as a nut that splits longitudinally into 3 equal valves at germination); seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long (c. 25 mm long), winged (by misinterpretation (actually 1-seeded fruit winged) or not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed more than 10 mm diam.

Distribution: West Sepik, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Western, Gulf, Central, Milne Bay & Papuan Islands.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

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Notes: Notes Formerly known as Vatica papuana Dyer.