Corynocarpus J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Evergreen, glabrous trees or shrubs, without resin-tubes. Leaves spread, simple, entire, more or less crowded towards the ends of the shoots, shining, exstipulate; midrib sulcate; shoots with perular terminal buds. Branches often in pseudo-whorls. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes lateral, generally not exceeding the leaves. Flowers on the ultimate axis in fascicles of 3, towards the end solitary, pedicellate, bracteate. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, fleshy, persistent, petaloid, lobes inequal, concave, imbricate, 2 outermost smallest. Petals 5, thinner than the sepals, inserted at the margin of the disk-like receptacle. Stamens 5, attached to the base of the petals; filaments flattened or terete, slightly thickened towards the base; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing lengthwise, intrors. Staminodes petaloid, dentate in the upper half, top mostly pointed, alternating with the petals. Disk glands 5, ovoid to ellipsoid, epistaminodial. Ovary ovoid, originally 2-celled, one cell soon abor-tive. Styles 1-2; stigma punctiform. Ovule 1, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit drupaceous, or a nut, with fibrous endocarp. Testa membranous; cotyledons plano-convex; albumen absent.

Uses. In New Zealand the fleshy exocarp and the seeds of C. laevigata FORST. are found edible by the Maori tribe, the prune-like fruit being prepared before, to remove some prussic acid containing glucosids. By its big fruit the New Guinean species is promising as a food plant, but nothing is definitely known about its properties.