Planchonia papuana

Primary tabs

Planchonia papuana

Description

Trees, up to 40 m high, with large buttresses, deciduous. Bark flaky or scaly, deeply grooved, fibrous, hard to cut, red-brown to black; Branchlets smooth to striate, greyish brown, lenticels scattered, leaf-scars, distinct, leaf-traces sometimes visible. Leaves: Inflorescences: Flowers white, glabrous; Petals obovate, up to 5.4 by 2.4 cm, green, membranaceous to papyraceous, reflexed, apex obtuse. Stamens forming tube of 1-1.5 cm long, white; Fruits obovoid to elongate-obovoid, without basal neck, up to 7 cm (including calyx lobes) by 3 cm, green; Seeds ovoid, oblique, 3-angular;

Distribution

Aru Islands present, Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present, Solomon Islands present
Solomon Islands; in Malesia: Moluccas (Aru Islands), New Guinea.

Uses

A decoction of the macerated bark can cure headache.

Notes

1. This species differs from P. timorensis by its few-flowered racemes or even solitary flowers instead of the many-flowered racemes in P. timorensis.
2. See notes under P. valida and P. spectabilis for differences.

Citation

R.Knuth 1948 – In: J. Arnold Arbor. 29: 161
Merr. & L.M.Perry 1940 – In: J. Arnold Arbor. 21: 295
Kuswata 1965: p. 176. – In: Bull. Bot. Surv. India: f. 6, 7, 12
auct. non Blume: Lauterb. 1922: p. 342. – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: f. 1