Kipiro Q. Damas & Barry J. Conn

Presentation outline

1. Introduction - Documentation available in PNG 2. Aim of the project 3. Study site 4. Methods of data collection and entry - Diagnostic characters - PNGTrees Data sheet - Software used 5. Results 6. Impediments 7. Conclusions Achievements and Final outcome 8. Acknowledgements

Introduction

The nation of Papua New Guinea is now 37 years old after independence and has a total land area of 46.437 million hectares, having a forest cover of 29.437 million hectares. The forest cover holds part of the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 vascular plants in the Island of New Guinea. The trees numbering to approximately 2,000 species of which approximately 400 are utilized as timber domestically and exported over seas. Timber resource is one of the major commodities for the revenue earnings apart from mining, petroleum and agriculture.

There are very few resources available to the timber industry that will enable the accurate

identification of major tree species within Papua New Guinea. The unnecessary destruction of rare and otherwise valuable tree species has, in part, resulted from the inability to distinguish these species from the preferred timber species.

Furthermore, the mixture of unwanted timber with that from preferred species has frequently resulted in the downgrading of all lumber to wood-chip.

This project is a major initiative of the Papua New Guinea National Herbarium, together with the Forestry Research Institute, Lae, Papua New Guinea and the National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, NSW, Australia (2003).

Continuation of the project made possible ACP EU FORNET Funding in 2009.

Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea

Volume 1: 8 Edition: 1978 (John S. Wormersley) 1.Combretaceae 2.Corynocarpaceae 3. Datiscaceae 4. Himantandraceae 5. Magnoliaceae 6. Meliaceae (Chisocheton) 7.Myristicaceae 8. Ochnaceae

Volume 3: 4 Tree Families Edition: 1995 1. Erythroxylaceae 2. Clusiaceae 3. Loganiaceae 4. Proteaceae

Documentations available in PNG

Tree families: 45 Edition: 1984 (P.G. Peekel)

Flora of the Bismarck archipelago

Introduction  cont…

Tree Families: 52 Edition: 1974 (J.J. Havel

Training manual for the Forestry College

Commercial timbers of Papua New Guinea

446 timber species

Aim of Project

2. Documentation of Flora of Papua New Guinea

2,000 Tree species

1. The aim of this project is to develop interactive identification tools for the common trees of Papua New Guinea so that government and non- government agencies particularly, ( foresters and loggers) are able to distinguish readily the important timber species from other non-timber trees.

Study site

Kamiali Wildlife Management area Distance from Lae: 70 km south of Lae Area: 47,000 hectares Forest: intact from low land to mid montane rain forest on ultra basic soil

Methods of data collection and entry

Diagnostic Characters

Height / dbh Buttresses Bole Vegetative Features Bark

Outer Bark Inner Bark

Colour Texture Odour

Leaf

Arrangement Simple/Compound Shape

(141 Identification characters)

Diagnostic Characters

Vegetative Features Floral and Fruiting Features

Macro-features

Number of parts Flower and fruit types

(141 identification characters)

WEB Entry Forms PNGTrees – DataSheet Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).

Guide to trees of Papua New Guinea Copyright held by the authors, National Herbarium of New South Wales, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium Data are grouped and ordered according to the following topics or features: Literature – Habit – Field Characters – Habit – Indumentum – Leaves – Flowers – Fruits – Administration – Distribution – Administration – Notes –

Load data into IntKey (DELTA), LucID or NaviKey software

Data can be entered remotely

Software used

The DiversityDescriptions version 2.0 (DeltaAccess 2.0)software (Hagedorn 2007+) has been used to manage and store plant descriptive data. This software outputs data in DELTA(Descriptive Language for Taxonomy) format (Dallwitz 2005), whichmakes these descriptive data widely available for other applications. DELTA format is a flexible method for encoding taxonomic descriptions for computer processing and management. The tree descriptions included in this project have been generated by this Microsoft Access® application, with output further modified using a perl script to include extra features. These features include a distribution map, specimen images and some aesthetic layout manipulation. Both the distribution map and the specimen images originate from collections held in the Papua New Guinea ('PNGplants') database (Conn et al. 2004+).

RESULTS

Automated Descriptions

Calophyllum papuanum Laut. Bot. Jarb. Vol. 58: 9 (1922). Fig. 2. Other Literature: P.F. Stevens Handbooks Fl. Papua New Guinea Vol. 3: 90-91 (1995)

Clusiaceae; Dicot. Tradename: Calophyllum. Timber species. Small trees or large trees. Buttresses sometimes present; spines absent; aerial roots absent;

stilt roots absent. Bark dark grey or brown; rough; fissured or scaly or flaky; exudate present; very light yellow; not changing colour on exposure to air. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig hairy; hairs dense or hairs sparse. Leaves opposite, simple; petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; (2.4-)6.5-17(-22) cm long, (1.4-)3.5-8(-11) cm wide; glands absent, lamina symmetric; margin entire; apex rounded or sub acute; venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins closed <spaced so close together that tertiary veins cannot be easily seen between them>, prominent or not prominent, but visible; stipules absent; domatia absent; hairs present; sparse or dense. Inflorescence axillary <from between a leaf and branch>, usually flowers on an unbranched axis; flowers unisexual, probably with male and female flowers on different plants <dioecious>, flowers stalked, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, about 5 mm long or across or to about 30 mm long or across; Perianth present; with all sepals and/or petals (hence tepals) similar; usually 8.0, free; Stamens (70-)150-300, filaments present, free of each other, free of the perianth; Ovary superior <seated above petals and sepals; hypogenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous>, locules 1; styles solitary <including joined together>, 1. Usually fruits arranged on unbranched axis; Fruit brown, non-fleshy. Seeds 1, much more than 10 mm long, not winged.

Data Presentation (in website)

Data Dictionary

Interactive Identification

List of Features

List of Tree Species

NaviKey

440 49

Result (Figures) cont...

Peter J. Eddowes Timber groups Peter Eddowes

Conn & Damas

Remarks

Major exportable hardwoods

53 53 To be confirmed

Commercial hardwoods

103 75 To be confirmed

Minor hardwoods 61 65 To be confirmed

Occasional timbers 213 145 To be confirmed

Soft woods 16 18 To be confirmed

Non timber species Nill 174 To be confirmed

Total timber species 446 532 (tree species)

Conn & Damas major exportable hardwoods : 53 commercial hardwoods: 75

minor hardwoods : 65

Softwoods: 18

Occasional timber species: 145

Non timber species: 174

Total trees scored: 532

53 major exportable hardwoods

103 commercial hardwoods

61 minor hardwoods

16 softwoods

213 occasional timbers

446 Timber species

Total of 700 trees yet to

score

Conn & Damas : 350 tree species documented from elsewhere (2003 – 2009) and 182 trees from Kamiali (2010 – 2012)

3. Resource limitations - Technical equipment

- Current Literature

- Taxonomic skills

IMPEDIMENTS

1. Travel logistics 2. Social Unrest

Conclusion

Achievements in this project

1. Documentation of 532 tree species of PNG 350 tree species documented from elsewhere (2003 – 2009)

182 trees from Kamiali (2010 – 2012) 2. Website used widely, nationally and internationally

http://www.pngplants.org or Google: pngtrees

Final outcome

1. Accessible through Internet 2. Compact Disc 3. Printed Book form

Distribution within PNG

Acknowledgements

CIFOR - ACP EU FORNET

Australian National Herbarium

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

National Herbarium of New South Wales

National Herbarium of Victoria

Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Queensland Herbarium

The Australia & Pacific Biological Foundation

Thank You