Hypserpa polyandra Becc.

Scandent shrub or woody climber up to c. 40 m. Branchlets minutely yellowish puberulous to glabrescent or tomentose. Leaves: petioles 2-4.5(-6) cm, puberulous or tomentose; lamina ovate to ovate-elliptic, 6-17 by 4-11 cm, apex shortly and often abruptly acuminate, or obtuse, sometimes mucronulate, base obtuse to rounded and sometimes abruptly cuneate, 5-7-nerved; lateral nerves 1-3 pairs; both surfaces sparsely puberulous to glabrous or tomentose; stiffly papyraceous to coriaceous. Inflorescences pseudo-paniculate, 2.5—11 by 1.5-5 cm, ± triangular in outline, yellowish puberulous or tomentose. Male flowers yellow, subsessile or with pedicels up to 1 mm; sepals 7-12, outer 2-5 ± triangular to rotund, 0.5-1 mm long, puberulous outside, inner (4-)5-7 ± rotund, 2-3 mm ø, margin sometimes minutely ciliolate; petals (5-)7-8, very variable in shape, 0.75-1 mm long, margin often undulate; stamens c. 20-40, connate, 1.5-2 mm long. Female flowers: sepals and petals similar to male; carpels 3, ± ellipsoid, 0.75 mm long. Drupes white or red on pedicels up to 2 mm long or subsessile, subrotund to obovate in outline, 7-8 mm long and broad, 4-6 mm thick. Endocarp rugulose, perforate.

Mangrove swamps and lowland mixed rain-forest, up to 1200 m. Fr. July, Nov., fl. March, May, July, Nov.

Uses. Bark after being pounded and powdered is applied to the head as a treatment for headaches in Bougainville I.