Chisocheton pohlianus

Chisocheton pohlianus is a species of flowering plant belonging to the mahogany family.

Distribution

It is a small, lower story, leptocaul rainforest tree from New Guinea.

It is not more than in height and thick. Like all Chisocheton species it has indeterminate, pinnate leaves in this case up to long and having as many as 28 pairs of leaflets at any given time. Each time the tiny circinate bud at the tip of the leaf forms a new pair of leaflets, the leaf simultaneously produces, further back, a small inflorescence, but not at the same spot as where a pair of leaflets are attached, but halfway between two pairs of leaflets. The jury is still out as to whether these are inflorescences fused to a leaf or whether the leaves have assumed reproductive function. The difficulty is in reconciling an indeterminate leaf with determinate inflorescences. The flowers are tubular, about long with four petals, pale greenish-white, and with the fragrance of Cymbopogon.