Syzygium kui Craven & Damas, 2021

Craven, L. A., Damas, K. Q. & Cowley, K. J., 2021, Studies in Papuasian Syzygium (Myrtaceae): 2. The furfuraceous species of subg. Syzygium, Blumea 66 (1), pp. 57-81 : 71-72

21. Syzygium kui Craven & Damas , sp. nov. — Map 6

From Syzygium hartleyi Craven & Damas it differs in having the leaf lamina coriaceous or cartilaginous and with 20‒25 primary veins on each side of the midrib (thinly coriaceous and 30‒46 in S. hartleyi ); hypanthium furfuraceous (not furfuraceous in S. hartleyi ); and the fruit c. 15‒20 by 15‒20 mm with the hypanthium rim c. 10 mm diam (c. 8 by 10 mm and the hypanthium rim 3 mm diam in S. hartleyi ). — Type: Robbins 950 (holo CANB!; iso L n.v., LAE !), Papua New Guinea, Eastern Highlands Province,Kainantu Subdistrict, Okapa road, forest, alt. c. 1920 m, 3 Oct. 1957.

Etymology. The specific name kui , is a noun in apposition and is the name for this plant in the Hagen language.

Tree to 7 m tall. Vegetative branchlet terete, rounded, 2‒3 mm diam; bark dull, smooth, slightly glandular-verrucose, bark persistent. Leaf lamina elliptic or obovate, 14‒19.5 by 4.5‒7.5 cm, 2.6‒3.1 times as long as wide; base cuneate; apex short acuminate; acumen flat; margin flat; coriaceous or cartilaginous; primary and secondary venation generally similar with all or nearly all secondaries joining the intramarginal vein; primary veins 20‒25 on each side of the midrib, in median part of lamina at a divergence angle of 70‒80° and 5‒7 mm apart; intramarginal vein present, weakly arched, 2‒3 mm from margin, secondary intramarginal vein absent. Petiole 7‒10 mm long. Reproductive seasonal growth unit with a reproductive zone only. Inflorescence leafless, cauline, few-flowered, cymose, up to 2.5 by 3 cm, major axis c. 2.5 mm thick at the midpoint, bark furfuraceous; bracts caducous (rarely a few persistent); bracteoles apparently subtending each flower, caducous (rarely a few persistent). Hypanthium furfuraceous. Calyx lobes 4, very depressedly triangular, c. 1.5 mm long. Style c. 6 mm long. Placentation axile-median; placenta cushion-shaped. Ovules c. 15 per locule, spreading, arranged irregularly. Mature fruit purple, strongly furfuraceous, plane, apparently spheroid; 15‒20 by 15‒20 mm excluding the calyx, with the hypanthium rim ap- preciably expanding in fruit and c. 10 mm diam; seed spheroid, c. 9 mm across, cotyledons collateral. Open flowers not seen.

Distribution — Papua New Guinea.

Habitat & Ecology — Beech to lower montane rainforest. Altitude c. 1920 m.

Notes — 1. The furfuraceous hypanthium and few-flowered inflorescence is diagnostic.

2. The species is known from the type collection only.