Medusanthera laxiflora (Miers) R.A.Howard

Tree, rarely shrub, (3-)7-15(-27) m, bole straight, terete, 5-25(-30) cm Ø, branches spreading ± horizontally; buttresses generally absent, rarely up to 1.2 m; bark smooth, with shallow longitudinal cracks, greenish-grey to brownish. Branchlets and petioles sparsely appressed-hirsutulous to glabrate. Leaves elliptic to oblong or obovate-elliptic, apex generally shortly and ± abruptly acuminate, rarely obtuse, base cuneate to rounded, thin-coriaceous to chartaceous, dark green and glossy above, greyish-green below when fresh, with very numerous round minute pellucid pores against strong light, lower surface minutely granular in dried specimens, glabrous, (9-)12-21 by (3-)4.5-8 cm, midrib sulcate above, prominent and maybe sparsely appressedly hairy beneath, nerves (6-)8-10(-12) pairs (with some shorter additional sometimes between them), rather straight to curved-ascending, ± distinctly anastomosing before the edge, sunken above, slightly raised beneath, veins rather obscure; petioles 1-1.5(-2) cm. Panicles generally solitary and with a slender peduncle (0.5-3 cm), 2-3-chotomized, each branch bearing one to several cymes, all over ± densely appressedly hirsutulous, the calyx and petals generally excepted. Pedicels slender, short. Calyx cup-shaped, tube ± contracted at base, 1 mm, limb spreading, 1 mm, minutely 5-dented. Petals oblong, 3-4 by c. 1 mm, sordid-white to greenish. ♂ Flowers: Filaments 2-3 mm, persistently clavate-hairy to barbate in the upper part; anthers c. 1 mm. Rudiment of ovary conical. ♀ Flowers: Sterile stamens frequently glabrate, not much smaller than in the ♂ flowers; cells empty. Ovary subcylindrical, c. 3 mm, curved, with a basal minute swelling; stigma subcapitate, with 2-3 minute rounded lobes initially, and numerous very short lobules in later stages. Drupe broad-oblong obtuse at both ends, curved, base hollow, 1-1.5(-2) by 0.6-0.8(-1) cm, sarcocarp thin, green to purplish, bearing on the convex side an oblong fleshy white to pinkish (rarely yellowish or purplish) pad for almost the entire length, which is thin in the dry state; endocarp thin, hard, bearing at the concave side 3(-5) longitudinal ridges ± sharply prominent in the dry fruit.

Understorey of lowland primary and secondary rain-forest, also in coastal plain forest and swamp forest, on sandy and clayey soil, on limestone and coral, 0-300(-900) m, once found in the Western Highlands at 1740 m. Fl.fr. Jan.-Dec.

Uses. The wood is whitish to yellowish, medium hard and heavy, with coarse prominent rays, apparently used only as firewood. The leaves are used orally by natives against malaria in New Guinea (Tufi Distr.).

It mostly grows wild, the fruit probably being distributed by cassowaries.