Ascarina diffusa
Content
Description
Shrub to small or medium-sized tree, dioecious or monoecious, 4—15(—25) m tall with open spreading crown;
Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate, 4-17 by 1.5-4.5 cm, distinctly acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, minutely to coarsely ser-rate, save near the base, thinly coriaceous;
Inflorescences green, yellowish or purple, many-flowered, lax, terminal and in the upper axils;
Inflorescence glomerules consisting basically of an abaxial male flower and adaxial female flower but more usually unisexual.
Fruit ellipsoid, 2-3 by 1.2-2.5 mm;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical, Bougainville present, Cook Is present, Mt Talawe present, New Britain present, New Hebrides present, Pacific: Fiji (Fiji present); Samoa (Samoa present), Papua New Guinea present, Solomon Is present
Solomon Is., New Hebrides, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Is.; in Malesia: Papua New Guinea (New Britain: Mt Talawe; Bougainville).
Notes
There is considerable difference between the foliage and inflorescence length of the single New Britain specimen seen and those from Bougainville (3 specimens), but bearing in mind the variation throughout its range this seems of no significance. FRODIN observed flower buds (young fruits?) red-violet whitish at tip and inflorescence purple but else-where the inflorescence is described as yellowish.