Syzygium buettnerianum (K.Schum.) Nied.

6. Syzygium buettnerianum (K.Schum.) Nied. View in CoL — Fig. 2 View Fig : 1.8; Map 4 View Map 4

Syzygium buettnerianum ( K.Schum.) Nied.(1893) 85. — Eugenia buettneriana K.Schum. (in Schumann & Hollrung 1889) 89. — Lectotype (designated here): Hollrung 658 (lecto MEL!; isolecto BO n.v., L!), Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Province, I. Augusta-Station [Chenap], July 1887.

Map 3 Distribution of Syzygium bubuuense Craven (●), S. busuense T.G.Hartley & L.M.Perry (■), S. cheesmaniae Craven & Damas (▲), S. debruijnii Craven & Damas (★), S. fazangii Craven & Damas (◆), S. folidorhachis Merr. & L.M.Perry (✚), S. foremanii Craven & Damas (Å), S. frodinii Craven & Damas (⨁).

Tree to 45 m tall, to 100 cm dbh; bark light-brown, brown, whitish brown, light grey-brown or light-grey, papery, flaky or smooth or deeply fissured. Vegetative branchlet compressed or terete, rounded or rarely slightly winged, 1.1‒2.8 mm diam; bark dull, smooth, slightly striate or cracked, not glandular-verrucose, persistent. Leaf lamina elliptic, ovate, narrowly elliptic, or narrowly ovate, 4.6‒15.5 by 1.9‒8.3 cm, 1.5‒3.2 times as long as wide; base attenuate, cuneate or rounded; apex long acuminate or acuminate; acumen recurved; margin revolute or flat; primary and secondary venation distinctly different with secondaries relatively little developed and not or rarely joining the intramarginal vein; primary veins 10‒30 on each side of the midrib, in median part of lamina at a divergence angle of 55‒65° and 2‒8 mm apart; intramarginal vein present, 0.5‒3.3 mm from margin, secondary intramarginal vein present. Petiole 4‒12 mm long. Reproductive seasonal growth unit with distinct vegetative and reproductive zones. Inflorescence leafy, terminal to distal axillary, corymbose, up to 70 by 30 cm, major axis 3‒4 mm thick at the midpoint, bark furfuraceous; bracts caducous or persistent; bracteoles apparently subtending each flower, caducous to persistent. Flower buds with the apex rounded to obtuse. Flowers red, pink, mauve or purple. Hypanthium glossy or dull-glossy, smooth, wrinkled-finely-ribbed and finely glandular; stipitate; goblet-shaped to rarely elongated goblet-shaped, 3.25‒5 by 2‒3 mm; stipe 1‒2.5 mm long. Calyx an undifferentiated ring of tissue 0.2‒0.4 mm long on which 4 lobes rarely distinguish- able, lobes up to 0.4 mm long including the rim. Petals 4 or 5 (number obscure as the petals are tightly coherent), calyptrate (coherent and falling as a cap). Staminal disc flat ( Fig. 2 View Fig : 1.8). Stamens 30‒35, 2.5‒4.75 mm long. Style 2‒4.5 mm long. Placentation axile-median; placenta a small cushion. Ovules 5‒12 per locule, spreading, arranged irregularly. Mature fruit blue, maroon, or violet-green, smooth, depressed spheroid, 8‒10 by 12‒17 mm excluding the calyx, with the hypanthium rim not appreciably expanding in fruit and 2.5‒4 mm diam; seed depressed spheroid, 7‒10 mm across; cotyledons collateral.

Distribution — Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Aus- tralia.

Habitat & Ecology — Lowland rainforest on ridge, secondary succession in creek gully, primary forest in plain country, rainforest on slope, margin of sago flat, on steep slopes, rainforest on gently undulating terrain, relict gully rainforest, on alluvial flats, disturbed rainforest on hill slope, tall and fairly open forest on riverbank, swamp, montane forest, margin of primary forest. Altitude 10‒1920 m.

Note — The leaf acumen typically is recurved but rarely some leaves on a specimen may be flat (e.g., in BW 2242). This species rarely occurs at higher altitudes, e.g., in the Wau area (NGF 8741, Wau-Salamaua road, alt. c. 1675 m and McAdam 405, Black Cat, Bitoi, alt. c. 1460 m). Syzygium hooglandii also occurs in the Wau region but it is not known if the two species ever occur there in biotic sympatry.