Walsura monophylla
Content
Description
Trees to 10 m tall, dbh 10 cm when tree 3 m tall.
Leaves 8–20(–27) cm long, undivided; petiole plus petiolule 0.8–1.8(–2.8) cm long, 0.8–1.8 mm thick, semiterete and flattened adaxially, glabrous.
Inflorescences clustered around shoot apex in axils of caducous undeveloped leaves or solitary or in pairs in axils of fully expanded leaves below, 6–9 cm long at anthesis, each a ± compact tjhyrse branched up to second order (excl. pedicels), first order branches up to 3 cm long, all parts sparsely pubescent with short simple trichomes.
Flowers hermaphrodite, just prior to opening cylindrical to cupiform, 3.5–4.5 mm long, 2–3 mm diam., at maximum opening 4–7.5 mm diam.
Petals 4–4.5 by 1.8–2 mm, slightly imbricate to valvate, apex acute and often slightly hooded.
Ovary very densely pubescent with short simple rigid trichomes.
Fruit a 1- or 2-seeded berry, globose, 0.8–1.1 cm diam., pale-green to cream in vivo, olive-green to midbrown in sicco, sparsely puberulous, pericarp very thin and subcoriaceous, surface rugose but almost smooth.
Seeds ± spherical or ± hemispherical and c. 8 mm long, enveloped in a thin aril?
Ecology
This species is largely restricted to ultrabasic soils. It can accumulate nickel to concentrations of about 7000 µg/g, though the fruit scarcely does so . Several Dysoxylum species in New Caledonia are tolerant of ultramafics but only one, D. minutiflorum C.DC. is as restricted to them as Walsura monophylla is.