. . . just to keep up the suspense, something new emerging between the new leaves. Flower or more leaves - follow-up to come.
Flower bud, for sure. Seeing that, I'm more inclined to side with everybody else about the Aescelus / Billia designation, since it's not even remotely typical of flower buds for the Araliaceae.
This is a member of family Cunoniaceae, identifiable by the compound leaves in opposite pairs and large, flattish stipules - plus the tree's reported origin. New Caledonia has an astonishing diversity of Cunoniaceae, with around 90 species, all endemic - compared with around 25 for the whole of Australia. I don't know of any available guide to identification of the family's New Caledonian members, but the palmately compound leaves of the above tree strongly suggest genus Geissois. Most other genera have pinnate, trifoliate or unifoliolate leaves.
Tony - thanks for your info. There's a Gessois hirsuta near by; 2 photos attached. There's also supposed to be a Cunonia purpurea (no label to indicate which plant). Haven't found any pix of Cunonia purpurea online that look like 'Unknown'. A wee kink in the ID situation - most of the new buds have been eaten by insects in the past two weeks.
The suspense continues - each new bud (5th consecutive at one node) turns out to be leaves. This past week, the attached appeared directly from the trunk - could be new leaves or hopefully an inflorescence. I'm currently leaning towards Geissois hippocastanifolia, even though its not on the plant list for this collection. Have gotten suggestions at RBG that it's Schefflera, Cunonia purpurea,, Sapotaceae and unknown. The following link was helpful. http://www.endemia.nc/flore/fiche3567.html
