Prunus turneriana
Content
Description
Trees up to 30 m, sometimes slightly buttressed, bark smooth or with lenticels in longitudinal lines, brown to grey.
Leaves elliptic to ovate or obovate, 7-23 by 4-11 cm, base rounded to acute, apex acute to rounded, coriaceous to herbaceous, with 7—12(—15) pairs of nerves, venation more or less transverse, usually conspicuous beneath when dry, densely to sparsely hairy when young, glabrescent, basal glands 2-6, flat.
Stipules ovate to triangular, sometimes large, 4-7(-15) by 1—3(—10) mm, free.
Flowers often male.
Stamens 15-50, filaments up to 4.5 mm, often hairy at base, anthers 0.5-1.2 mm long.
Ovary hairy, style up to 5 mm long, hairy, pistil-lode in male flowers minute.
Fruits compressed subglobular, 17-33 by 18-34 mm, hairy, black when ripe, mesocarp rather thick when living, endocarp c. 1 mm thick, woody, usually hairy inside.
Seed with usually sparsely hairy testa, hairs often especially near apex, sometimes glabrous, rarely densely hairy.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Bismarck Archipelago (Bismarck Archipelago present); Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea (Irian Jaya present), Australasia, Bacan present, N Queensland present, New Hanover present, Papua New Guinea present
Moluccas (one specimen seen from Bacan), Papua New Guinea (and one sterile collection from Irian Jaya), Bismarck Archipelago (only one specimen, from New Hanover), Australia (N Queensland).
Notes
The species is characterized by its thick-walled, compressed subglobular fruits. In Australia the species is much more uniform than in New Guinea, but on the evidence available now, it is not possible to discriminate two taxa, as done in the 1965 revision. In New Guinea the species is found at low altitudes (as in Queensland) but also in montane forest. In the higher altitudes the leaves are often relatively small and densely hairy, but the variation in these two characters is continuous.
The fruits are very variable in dimension, also within one specimen; the extremely large fruits all come from New Guinea. The indumentum on the seedcoat is in Australian specimens usually sparse and often restricted to the apex. In New Guinean specimens the seeds are sometimes quite glabrous, rarely densely hairy.
The fruits are very variable in dimension, also within one specimen; the extremely large fruits all come from New Guinea. The indumentum on the seedcoat is in Australian specimens usually sparse and often restricted to the apex. In New Guinean specimens the seeds are sometimes quite glabrous, rarely densely hairy.