Calophyllum neo-ebudicum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Calophyllum neo-ebudicum Guillaumin

Protologue: Journ. Arn. Arb. 12: 227 (1931).

Synonyms

• Calophyllum samoense Christophersen (1935),
• Calophyllum pseudovitiense P.F. Stevens (1974),
• Calophyllum spectabile auct. non Willd.,
• Calophyllum vitiense auct. non Turrill.

Distribution

North-eastern Papua New Guinea (New Britain, Bougainville), Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

Uses

The timber is often used for making canoes, and locally also for building houses and making spears and bowls.

Observations

• A very large tree up to 58 m tall with bole up to 185 cm in diameter, usually without buttresses; twigs obscurely 4-angled, terminal bud plump, rarely conical, 4-15 mm long.
• Leaves (narrowly) ovate to elliptical, (4-)5-19.5 cm long, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, with 7-14 veins per 5 mm.
• Inflorescences axillary, rarely terminal, usually unbranched, 7-17-flowered; flowers with 8(-12) tepals.
• Fruit ovoid or ellipsoid to subspherical, 21-37(-43) mm long, with thin to fairly thick outer layer, compact but usually having air spaces under the skin, bluish to purplish-black when ripe.

C. neo-ebudicum usually occurs in well-drained, primary rain forest, preferably on ridges, up to 800 m altitude. It is often abundant, especially in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Selected sources

648.

Main genus page

• Calophyllum

Authors

R.H.M.J. Lemmens (selection of species)