Campnosperma brevipetiolatum
Content
Description
Tree up to 48 m high and 120 (exceptionally to 220) cm Ø.
Bark grey to cream, smooth but pustularly lenticellate, in large trees often fawn to light brown and scaly, less often shallowly fissured.
Leaves oblanceolate, 14-56 by 4½-l7½ cm (up to 73 by 27 cm on vegetative twigs), densely pubescent on both surfaces when young, usually glabrescent except the basal part;
Flowers cream-coloured or yellow.
Petals broadly ovate, 1-1½ by ¾-l mm.
Stamens ⅔-l½ mm;
Panicles up to 44 cm long, profusely branched, branches up to 19cm;
Ovary subglobose, c. ⅔ mm Ø.
Distribution
Ambon present, Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present; Sulawesi (Sulawesi present), Caroline Is present, Kusaie present, Malili & Muna I present, Melanesia present, Micronesia present, New Britain present, New Ireland present, Palau present, Ponape present, Santa Cruz Is present, Solomon Is present, Talaud present, Yap present
Micronesia (Caroline Is.Palau, Kusaie, Yap, Ponape), Melanesia (New Ireland, New Britain, widely distributed in the Solomon Is. and in Santa Cruz Is.), and Malesia: New Guinea (widely distributed), Moluccas (Talaud, Ambon), and Celebes (Malili & Muna I.).
Ecology
HOSOKAWA has made extensive studies on the important role this species plays in the forests of the Carolines where it can be associated with some other co-dominants (Pandanus, Elaeocarpus, etc.), See his abundantly illustrated papers in dealing with the sociology of these Campnosperma forest types.
In the Solomons forests are found which are dominated by one or a few species of big trees such as C. brevipetiolatum, Endospermum medullosum, and Gmelina moluccana. WHITMORE l.c. stated that, according to recent studies in timber-felling areas and in natural high forest, "seedlings of these species cannot grow up in shade but come up gregariously and vigorously in clearings".
Uses
The timber is used for making: canoes (1, 3, 4). The wood yields diumu-oil (Papuan Delta) or tigaso-oil (Lake Kutubu), which has some economic significance to the local people and is rubbed on the skin as an antiparasiticum (2, 4, 6, 7); the oil has also been used as medicine for harness sores on horses (5).
Notes
Detached leaves or those on young (sterile) twigs, without distinct auricles, of the present species are similar to big vegetative leaves of C. montanum, and cannot be identified with certainty.
Citation
VOLKENS 1967 – In: Gard. Bull. Sing.: 4
LAUT. 1920 – In: Bot. Jahrb.: 359
VERSTEEGH 1971 – In: Med. Landb. Hogesch. Wageningen: 23
WHITMORE 1965 – In: Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond.: 265
LANE-POOLE 1925: For. Res.: 106
HALLE 1974: p. 47. – In: Biotropica: f. 6
KRAEMER 1951: Trees W. Pac. Reg.: 191
WALKER 1948: For. Br. Sol. Is. Prot.: 90
ROYEN 1964: p. 16. – In: Man. For. Trees Papua & N. G.: f. 5
VOLKENS 1933: Fl. Micron: 184: f. 75
KANEH. 1931 – In: Bot. Mag. Tokyo: 292
VOLKENS 1966: Guide For. Br. Sol. Is.: 34