Author: Kostermans
Morphological description
Tree 12-24 m high and 35-50 cm in diameter; buttresses thick, steep, to c. 1 m high. Stipules minute, caducous.
Leaves usually with 2 opposite leaflets, or sometimes 1-foliolate, petiole 4-11 mm, glabrous, glossy, ending in a subulate tip (c. 4 mm long, papuana Crudia TYPE detail ) ; petiolules rather thick, 4-12 mm, transversally wrinkled. Leaflets subcoriaceous, elliptic, oblong, or slightly obovate-oblong, 6-21.5 by 2-7.5 cm, apex bluntly acute to acuminate, base rounded or obtuse; rather shining and glabrous on both surfaces; nerves 5-9 or more per side.
Inflorescences in upper axils or terminal on lateral shoots, up to c. 15 cm long, moderately flowered, often with many fasciculate, linear bud scales or bracts at the base, the rachis glabrous, sometimes sparsely puberulous; bracts and bracteoles minute, triangular, 0.5-1.5 mm long; pedicels short, 2-3 mm, glabrous.
Flowers cream white or very pale green, scented. Hypanthium obscure. Calyx lobes ovate, c. 4 by 2 mm, glabrous. Stamens 10, c. 5 mm, glabrous. Pistil distinctly stipitate; ovary c. 2.5 mm long, 2-ovuled; style c. 2.5 mm, glabrous; stigma obscure.
Pods brownish black when ripe, often obliquely elliptic or elliptic-oblong, 9-11 by 4-7 cm, compressed, apex acute or shortly acuminate, base rounded or obtuse, or sometimes slightly cuneate, laxly prominulously reticulate, densely ferruginous velvety tomentose and pubescent, the stipe short, c. 3 mm, valves leathery, 1(or 2)-seeded.
Seeds slightly reniform, 3-5 by 5-7.5 cm, flat, reddish brown.
Distribution
Solomon Islands (New Georgia); in Malesia: New Guinea (Irian Jaya: Asmat region; Papua New Guinea: Western & Gulf Provinces).
Habitat & Ecology
River bank, sago swamp-woodland, swamp forest, land subject to tidal (fresh water) inundation. 0-114 m altitude Flowering February, March, June, July; fruiting January, May, July.
Note
This species is characterized by the mostly 2-foliolate leaves. The leaflets are coriaceous, glabrous and with transversally wrinkled petiolule, and are opposite on a 2-foliolate leaf. The pods are often 1-seeded.