Description: Trees or shrubs, milky latex present, but sometimes sparse. Young shoots often hairy, mostly glabrescent with age.
Leaves alternate, often clustered towards ends of branches. Stipules absent.
Flowers stalked, solitary or in few-flowered clusters, usually axillary, sometimes ramiflorous. Sepals 5. Petals 5, fused to c. halfway. Stamens 5, staminodes 5 and alternating with the corolla lobes. Ovary mostly 1–6-locular.
Berry 1–6-seeded; seeds narrow-ellipsoid, laterally flattened, usually brown and shiny with a long narrow whitish scar, testa hard and bony.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 100 species, mainly Melanesia, Australia, Micronesia–Polynesia, Hawaiian Is., 2 species in South America. Australia: 9 species, Qld, N.S.W., N.T., W.A.
This has sometimes been included in a broad concept of Pouteria, but recent research shows it is distinct. (L. Jessup, BRI, pers. comm. 2006 - see Swensen et al. (2007 Cladistics 23: 221-222 and (2007) Taxon 56(2): 337).
Text by G. J. Harden (1990); edited KL Wilson (Jan 2007, Oct 2007)
Taxon concept: Jessup, L.W. (2019). A taxonomic revision of Sapotaceae for mainland Australia. Austrobaileya 10(3): 321–382.
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves spathulate and usually less than 30 mm long; lower surface glabrous or densely hairy | Planchonella cotinifolia |
| Leaves not spathulate and mostly more than 30 mm long; lower surface glabrous or finely hairy | 2 |
| 2 | Leaves usually less than 8 cm long and mostly 2–2.5 times as long as wide, mostly more or less elliptic, sometimes obovate, usually quickly tapering into a short petiole; sometimes finely hairy below | Planchonella myrsinifolia |
| Leaves usually more than 8 cm long, or if less, then more than 2.5 times as long as wide; mostly obovate to oblanceolate, gradually tapering into petiole, usually glabrous, petiole and midvein sometimes hairy
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Leaves mostly more or less oblanceolate, leaves more than 4 times as long as wide; secondary veins and margins yellowish; young stems, petioles and midveins silky, hairs fawnish | Planchonella pohlmaniana |
| Leaves mostly obovate, sometimes more or less elliptic, mostly less than 4 times as long as wide; secondary veins and margins usually not yellowish; stems, petiole and veins glabrous
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Apex of lamina rounded or quickly tapering to a blunt point; lamina mostly thick and leathery; intramarginal vein not distinct; fruit more than 20 mm long | Planchonella australis |
| Apex of lamina tapering to a point; lamina mostly thin and papery; intramarginal veins distinct; fruit less than 20 mm long
Back to 3 | Planchonella chartacea |
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