Aglaia brassii Merr. & L.M.Perry

Merrill, E.D. & Perry, L.M. (1940) Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 21: 325. Type: SOLOMONS: Ysabel Island, Meringe, Brass 3189, Nov. 23, 1932; lecto: A; iso: BO, BRI. Fide Pannell, C. M. (1992) Kew Bull. Add. Ser. 16: 249.

A small tree not exceeding 30 cm dbh. Blaze odour +/- aromatic, resembling that of Red Cedar (Toona ciliata).

Leaflet blades about 4.5-22 x 2-7 cm. Oil dots visible with a lens. Young shoots, terminal buds and the underside of the leaflet blades with a sparse covering of rusty stellate scales. Pulvinus present on the middle leaflet.

Flowers about 2-4 mm long. Calyx cup-shaped, about 0.5-1 mm, outer surface stellate hairy or covered in stellate scales. Corolla outer surface glabrous, petals 4 or 5. Staminal tube about 1.2-3 mm long.

Fruits about 2-2.8 x 1.3-2.5 cm, orange-brown to yellow, covered with stellate hairs or scales at maturity. Aril white or translucent.

First pair of leaves ovate to lanceolate, about 5.5-2 cm, apex acute or acuminate, base obtuse. Terminal bud and stem clothed in cream and brown stellate scales. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blades clothed in stellate hairs. Oil dots visible with a lens. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade narrowly elliptic, apex acute, base obtuse, margin undulate, with scattered pale brown stellate hairs or scales on the underside and almost glabrous on the upper surface; stem and terminal bud clothed in numerous, pale brown, stellate hairs or scales. Seed germination time 49 to 157 days.

Occurs in NEQ, known only from collections made in the Mt Spurgeon-Mt Lewis area and also the Mt Pieter Botte area. Altitudinal range from 700-1200 m. Grows as a small understory tree in well developed mountain rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.