Agroforestree database This database provides detailed information on a total of 670 agroforestry tree species. It is intended to help field workers and researchers in selecting appropriate species for agroforestry systems and technologies. For each species, the database includes information on identity, ecology and distribution, propagation and management, functional uses, pests and diseases and a bibliography. This project has been funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID, the European Union and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). |
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| Acacia aulacocarpa | Acacia aulacocarpa is a shrub to a slender, large tree, 3-40 m tall; trunk up to 1 m in diameter, sometimes fluted. Bark hard, sometimes brownish, about 1 cm thick, longitudinally fissured, peeling in long strips. Phyllodes straight or falcate, acute or subacute, 5-15 x 0.6-3.5 cm, 3-12 times as long as wide, glabrous, greyish-green or dull grey, with 3 prominent longitudinal veins somewhat crowded towards lower margin at base, usually not yellowish, and with many parallel, not anastomosing, secondary veins, pulvinus, 4-6 mm long, with an ellipsoid basal gland. Inflorescence a spike, 2-6 cm long, yellow, 1-3 together, peduncle 2-8 mm long, scurfy; flowers pentamerous, bisexual, calyx broadly cupular, 0.5-1 mm long, membranous, with broad, obtuse, scurfy lobes 0.2-0.3 mm long, lobed to the middle, glabrous, 2-3 times as long as the calyx; stamens many, 2.5-3 mm long; ovary 0.5 mm long, shortly pubescent or scurfy. Pod oblong, up to 10 x 2 cm, light brown, coriaceous to subwoody, with prominent obliquely transverse, dark brown veins, glabrous, often twisted when old. Seed elliptical-oblong, 5-8 x 2.5-3.5 mm, shiny black, transverse or oblique in pod, with pale terminal aril. Two varieties are recognised. Var fruticosa, a bushy shrub to 3 m tall and var aulacocarpa, usually a tree 10-20 m tall but ranges from a shrub of 4 m on xeric sites to a large tree to 40 m tall in tropical rainforest. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The species name ‘aulacocarpa’ is derived from the Greek 'aulakos' (a furrow) and 'carpos' (fruit), referring to the prominent furrowing and thickened transverse bands on the pods. |
| Acacia auriculiformis | Acacia auriculiformis is an evergreen tree that grows between to 15-30 m tall, with a trunk up to 12 m long and 50 cm in diameter. It has dense foliage with an open, spreading crown. The trunk is crooked and the bark vertically fissured. Roots are shallow and spreading. Leaves 10-16 cm long and 1.5-2.5 cm wide with 3-8 parallel nerves, thick, leathery and curved. Flowers are 8 cm long and in pairs, creamy yellow and sweet scented. Pods are about 6.5 x 1.5 cm, flat, cartilaginous, glaucous, transversely veined with undulate margins. They are initially straight but on maturity become twisted with irregular spirals. Seeds are transversely held in the pod, broadly ovate to elliptical, about 4-6 x 3-4 mm. The generic name acacia comes from the Greek word ‘akis’ meaning a point or a barb and the specific epithet comes from the Latin ‘auricula’- external ear of animals and ‘forma- form, figure or shape, in allusion to the shape of the pod. |
| Acacia elatior | Acacia elatior is a tall, evergreen, riverine tree, 7-40 m tall; crown rounded or flattish; bark brown to almost black, deeply fissured; stipular spines of 2 kinds in pairs at the nodes - shorter, 7 mm, brown, sometimes, curved spines, alternating with longer spines, which may reach 9 cm and are straight, white, with a swollen base; the larger spines are sometimes inflated to about 6 (max. 15) mm across; trunk is large, and young twigs are reddish-brown. Leaves with 5-13 pairs of pinnae; leaflets in (min. 7) 13-25 pairs, 1.2-4 x 0.5-1.4 mm, small and narrow, glabrous or ciliate; petiole 3-10 mm; petiole and rachis glands absent. Flowers in round heads, greenish-white or white to very pale yellow; involucel small, about 1/3 along length of peduncle. Fruits are brown to purplish-brown pods, straight or slightly falcate, narrowly oblong, 3.5-12 x 1.2-1.8 cm, tapering at the tip, papery texture, dehiscent; seeds olive-brown, subcircular, 6-7 mm in diameter, thin, flattened. In Kenya, two subspecies are recogized namely subs. elatior and subs. turkanae The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. |
| Acacia karroo | Acacia karroo is an evergreen tree 3-15 m tall, rarely shrubby; bark on trunk dark red-brown to blackish; young branchlets glabrous or rarely sparsely and inconspicuously puberulous, also with small inconspicuous pale to reddish sessile glands; epidermis flaking off to expose a dark rusty red, not powdery under bark, sometimes grey to brown and persistent; stipules spinescent, up to 7 (max. 17) cm long, rather robust, whitish, often deflexed, sometimes fusiform-inflated, up to 1 cm or more. Leaves with small to large (sometimes paired) gland at the junction of each pinna-pair, rarely lacking at the basal 1-2 pairs; sometimes a large gland on the upper side of the petiole; pinnae 2-7 pairs; leaflets 5-15 pairs, 4-7 x 1-3 mm, glabrous or rarely with minutely ciliolate margins, glandular, obtuse to subacute but not spinulose-mucronate at the apex; lateral nerves invisible on the underside. Flowers deep or golden yellow, in axillary pedunculate heads 8-12 mm in diameter borne along shoots of the current season, sometimes aggregated into leaflets’ terminal racemes. Calyx 1.25-2 mm long, subglabrous; corolla 2.5-3 mm long, glabrous or almost so. Pods dehiscent, 6-16 x 0.6-0.9 cm, linear, falcate, usually constricted between the seeds, glabrous except for small usually inconspicuous glands; seeds olive-green to brown, 5-8 x 3-5 mm, oblong-elliptic, compressed; areole 4.5-5.5 x 2-3.5 mm. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The specific name ‘karoo’ does not signify that this is a species of the Karroo alone, but that it is a principal and most conspicuous tree of this semi-desert of southern Africa. |
| Acacia koa | Acacia koa is a large, evergreen tree to 25 m tall, stem diameter to 150 cm at breast height. Trees occurring in dense, wet native forest stands typically retain a straight, narrow form. In the open, trees develop more spreading, branching crowns and shorter, broader trunks. A. koa has one main tap root and an otherwise shallow, spreading root system. Bark gray, rough, scaly and thick. A. koa belongs to the thorn-less, phyllodinous group of the Acacia subgenus Heterophyllum. Young seedlings have bipinnate compound true leaves with 12-15 pairs of leaflets. Where forest light is sufficient, seedlings stop producing true leaves while they are less than 2 m tall. True leaves are retained longer by trees growing in dense shade. Phyllodes are sickle-shaped and often more than 2.5 cm wide in the middle and blunt pointed on each end. Inflorescence is a pale yellow ball, 8.5 mm in diameter, 1-3 on a common stalk. Each inflorescence is composed of many bisexual flowers. Each flower has an indefinite number of stamens and a single elongated style. Pods are slow to dehisce, 15 cm long and 2.5-4 cm wide. They contain 6-12 seeds that vary from dark brown to black. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning point or barb. |
| Acacia mangium | Acacia mangium is a single-stemmed evergreen tree or shrub that grows to 25-35 m in height. Young trees have smooth, greenish bark; fissures begin to develop at 2-3 years. Bark in older trees is rough, hard, fissured near the base, greyish-brown to dark brown, inner bark pale brown. Bole in older trees branchless for up to 15 m, fluted, up to 90 cm in diameter; branchlets acutely triangular. Phyllodes are large up to 25 cm long and 3.5-10 cm broad, 2-5 times as long as wide, straight or straight along 1 side and curved along the other, with 4 (max. 5) main longitudinal veins, secondary veins finely anastomosing; glaborous, pulvinus 6-10 cm long. A gland (extra floral nectary) is conspicuous at the base of the phyllode. Inflorescence is composed of many tiny white or cream flowers in spikes. Flowers are quinqeufloral; the calyx is 0.6-0.8 mm long, with obtuse lobes; corolla 1.2-1.5 mm long. Peduncles are canescent and pubescent, about 1 cm long; rachis is also canescent and pubescent. Pods are broad, linear and irregularly coiled when ripe. They are membranous or slightly woody, inconspicuously veined. 3-5 mm wide and 7-10 cm long. Ripening pods change from green to brown, stiff and dry. Seeds are black and shiny with shape ranging from longitudinal, elliptical, ovate to oblong, 3-5 mm by 2-3 mm. The seeds are arranged longitudinally and attached to the pods by an orange to red folded funicle. The generic name acacia comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. This acacia was originally described as Mangium montanum Rumph. in Herbarium Amboinense (1750) but changed to an Acacia in 1806. The specific name is an allusion that this tree resembled 'mangge' (mangroves in Indonesia). |
| Acacia mearnsii | Acacia mearnsii is a small to large, evergreen, single-stemmed or multi-branched tree, 6-25 m high, with a straight trunk, growing to 50 cm in diameter; crown low, spreading, rounded; spines absent; bark brownish-black, hard and fissured; twigs angled, grey, densely hairy, tinged with yellow when young. Trees in their natural habitat have a spreading, rounded crown, but are erect and slender when crowded in plantations. Leaves dark green, alternate, feathery, with very soft hair, binnately compound, 8-15 cm long, with 8-21 pairs of pinnae 2-5 cm long, a round gland at base of each pair on upper surface; leaflets very numerous; 20-70 pairs of pinnae on each axis; small, crowded, narrowly oblong, 3 mm long, blunt, with dense soft hairs, yellowish when young becoming dark green, 1.5-4 x 0.5-0.75 mm; petiole 1.5-2.5 cm long, often with a gland above; rachis usually 4-12 cm long, with numerous raised glands all along its upper side both at and between insertions of pinnae pairs. The tree exhibits a superficial root system. Flower clusters (racemes) along axis at leaf base or terminal, composed of many (20-30) stalked, pale yellow balls (heads) 7-8 mm in diameter; flowers many, tiny, very sweet scented, composed of narrow 5-lobed calyx; corolla of 5 petals; stamens many, threadlike, pale yellow; pistil with long, slender style 2-6 mm long. Pods (legumes) narrowly oblong, flat, rough, blackish, with fine hair, fairly straight, 5-15 cm long by 4-9 mm wide but often constricted between the seeds, almost moniliform (in Australia pods less moniliform and almost glabrous are found), dehiscing along 1 margin; seeds about 1-14, longitudinal in the pod, beanlike, elliptical, flattened, blackish, 4 mm long; caruncle conspicuous; areole 3.5 x 2 mm. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The specific name is after A.R Mearns (1856-1916), an American army surgeon who collected the type specimen form a cultivated tree near Thika in Kenya. The name was first published in Pl. Bequaert in 1925. |
| Acacia nilotica subsp nilotica | Acacia nilotica ssp. nilotica is an evergreen, usually moderate-sized (2.5-25 m) tree with a short, thick and cylindrical trunk; bark is grey, reddish-brown or black, rough, furrowed. Leaves are alternate, bipinately compound, 5-15 cm long; axis fairly hairy, with 3-8 pairs of side axes (pinnae) 1-4 cm long; leaflets 10-30 pairs on each side axis, small, narrowly oblong, 3-6 mm long, blunt at the ends with tiny hairs along edges, grey-green. Flowers many, crowded, stalkless, 6-8 mm long, composed of 5-toothed corolla 3 mm long; many yellow, threadlike stamens, 6 mm long, united at base, with yellow, dotlike anthers and pistil with slender ovary and threadlike style. Pods long, narrow, flattened, 8-17 x 1-2 cm, straight, mostly narrowed between seeds, stalked at the base, short, pointed grey or black, mostly aromatic, not splitting open, breaking in segments; seeds 8-15, beanlike, 7-9 mm in diameter, rounded, flattened, blackish-brown. It has considerable variation with nine subspecies presently recognized, three occurring in the Indian subcontinent and six throughout Africa. They are distinguished by the shape and pubescense of pods and the habit of the tree. The species is similar to other A. nilotica subspecies, but is distinguished by its glabrous fruits. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The typical A. nilotica is native to the Nile countries, hence the specific name. |
| Acacia tortilis | Acacia tortilis is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree or shrub that grows up to 21 m tall; well-developed multiple boles support a flat-topped or rounded, spreading crown; bark grey to black or dark brown, rough, fissured or smooth; young branchlets densely pubescent or glabrous to subglabrous and red to brown; spines paired, 2 types-long, straight and white, or short, brownish and hooked; they range from 1.2 to 8 cm in length. Leaves glabrous to densely pubescent, glandular, short at 1.25-3.75 cm long; petiole 0.2-0.9 cm long, with a gland; rachis 0.3-2 cm long, glabrous to densely pubescent, with a small gland at the junction of the apical pair of pinnae; pinnae 2-10 pairs; leaflets 4-22 pairs per pinnae, 0.5-4 (6 max.) x 0.2-1 mm, glabrous to densely pubescent on the underside; margins with or without cilia, linear to linear oblong. Inflorescence globose heads; peduncle white, pubescent, 0.4-2.5 cm long, with involucel on the lower half; flowers white or pale yellowish-white, sessile or shortly pedicellate, scented, 0.5-1.1 cm in diameter, on axillary peduncles; calyx 1-2 mm long; corolla 1.5-2.5 mm long. Pods variable, indehiscent, spirally twisted or rarely almost straight, 7-10 cm long, 6-10 (max. 13) mm broad, longitudinally veined, leathery, glabrous to tomentellous or villous, somewhat constricted between the seeds; seeds oblique or parallel to long axis of pod, 4-7 x 3-6 mm, compressed; areole 3-6 x 2-4 mm. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The name ‘tortilis’ means twisted and refers to the pod structure. |
| Agathis philippinensis | Agathis philippinensis is a very large, evergreen tree growing up to 60 m tall and 3 m in diameter. |
| Allanblackia floribunda | Allanblackia floribunda is an evergreen forest tree confined to tropical Africa, to 30 m tall. Bole straight, occasionally fluted. Bark dark brown, patchy; slash thin, reddish at the surface, yellow beneath, exuding a sticky yellow juice. Branches slender, drooping and often conspicuously whorled. Leaves opposite, 8-22 cm long by 2-4.5 cm wide; elliptic elongated, or somewhat oblanceolate, abruptly and sharply acuminate, cuneate or rounded at the base; with many pairs of very thin lateral nerves running at a wide angle to the midrib; stalk stout, 1-2 cm long. Flower unisexual, monoecious, pink or red, very fragrant, up to 5 cm across when expanded and 1.5 cm across in bud. Stalk 2.5-6 cm long with 5 unequal overlapping, rounded and concave sepals. Petals 5, rounded about 2 cm long. Male flowers in a terminal raceme, crowded towards the apex of the drooping branches. Stamen-bundle flattened, club-like, yellow, waxy, about 1.5 cm long. Female flowers with similar sepals and petals; stamens reduced to staminodes; ovary ovoid, 1.5 cm long, glabrous with 2-4 ovules per locules, arranged in 2 rows; with the large 5-lobed stigmas forming a cap over the apex. Fruit is an ovoid 5-lobed berry-like drupe 9-20 cm long and 7-14 cm in diameter with tough flesh, hanging at the end of a short stalk. Seeds are brittle-shelled, 2-5 cm long by 1.5-3.2 cm in diameter, 40-50 per fruit, embedded in a pinkish gelatinous pulp. The generic name is after Allan Black, a 19th century Kew botanist. The specific name ‘floribunda’ describes the abundant flowering in this species, making showy displays. |
| Allanblackia stuhlmannii | Allanblackia stuhlmannii is a tall evergreen forest tree to 40 m tall, with a straight, occasionally buttressed bole. The branches are usually drooping and often conspicuously whorled. Bark dark grey or black, sometimes smooth or with rough squares scales. The slash is red with white stripes, fibrous/ granular, exuding a clear exudate latex, which later turns yellowish. Leaves simple, opposite, deep green, 5-19.5 cm long by 1.2-7 cm wide; oblong or elliptic elongated, abruptly and sharply acuminate, cuneate at the base; with many pairs of very thin lateral nerves running at a wide angle to the midrib; stalk stout, 1-2 cm long. Flower large, waxy, unisexual, usually solitary in axils, very fragrant, up to 5 cm across when expanded and 1.5 cm across in bud form. Stalk 6-8 cm long with 5 unequal overlapping, rounded and concave red or pale yellow sepals. Petals 5, cream or scarlet rounded about 2 cm long. Male flowers in a terminal raceme, crowded towards the apex of the drooping branches. Anthers on both faces of stamen bundles. Stamen-bundle flattened, club-like, yellow, and waxy, about 1.5cm long. Female flowers with stamens reduced to staminodes; ovary ovoid, 1.5 cm long, glabrous with 2-4 ovules per locules, arranged in 2 rows; with the large 5-lobed stigmas forming a cap over the apex. Fruit is a large ovoid 5-lobed drupe, 16-34 cm long by 15-17 cm wide with tough flesh, brown or red-brown, oblong or subglobose, producing a yellow latex, hanging at the end of a short stalk. Seeds brittle-shelled, four-angled, about 4 cm long by 3 cm wide, 40-100 per fruit, embedded in a gelatinous pulp. The generic name ‘Allanblackia’ is after a 19th-century Kew botanist, Allan Black. There are 9 species in the genus Allanblackia accepted according to Bamps (1969). These are A. ulugurensis Engl., A. stuhlmannii Engl. (endemic to East Africa), A. kisonghi Vermoesen, A. kimbiliensis Spirl (endemic to Congo-Kinshasa). The rest such as Allanblackia floribunda Oliv., A. parviflora A.Chevalier, A. gabonensis (Pellegr.) Bamps, A. marienii Staner, A. stanerana Exell & Mendonca occur in several countries of Central Africa. |
| Allanblackia ulugurensis | Allanblackia ulugurensis is a medium to large evergreen forest tree to 30 m tall, with a straight and slightly buttressed bole. The branches are drooping and often conspicuously whorled. The bark is red-brown or brownish-grey and when slashed exuding yellow latex. Leaves simple, opposite, dark green, 7.5-19.5 cm long by 4-11 cm wide; oblong or elliptic elongated, slightly emarginated or rounded at the apex and broadly cuneate at the base; with many pairs of lateral nerves running at a wide angle to the midrib; stalk stout, 0.7-1.4 cm long. Flower unisexual, dioecious, clustered towards the ends of the drooping branchlets, axillary, fleshy, pedicel short, up to 5cm across when expanded and 1.5cm across in bud form. Sepals 5 unequal overlapping, red-brownish, elliptic or almost rounded with the inner 4-7.5 mm long and 4-6.5 mm wide and the outer nearly round up to 1.2 cm long and wide. Petals 5, rounded about 2cm long. Male flowers reddish pink. Stamen-bundle clavate, about 1-1.5cm long and 0.7-1.2 cm wide, angled pointing towards the centre of the flower. Female flowers stamens reduced to staminodes; ovary ovoid, 1.5 cm long, arranged in 2 rows; with the large 5-lobed stigmas forming a cap over the apex. Fruit reddish pink but ochraceous when dry, conical-oblong drupe, 10-13.5 cm long and 6.5-8 cm in diameter, hanging at the end of a short stalk. Seeds irregular in shape, brittle-shelled, 3-3.6cm long by 2.2-2.3cm in diameter, embedded in a gelatinous pulp on one angle. The generic name ‘Allanblackia’ is after a 19th-century Kew botanist, Allan Black. The specific epithet ‘ulungurensis’ refers to one of the plant’s endemic distribution localities in Tanzania. There are 9 species in the genus Allanblackia accepted according to Bamps (1969). These are A. ulugurensis Engl., A. stuhlmannii Engl. (endemic to East Africa), A. kisonghi Vermoesen, A. kimbiliensis Spirl (endemic to Congo-Kinshasa). The rest such as Allanblackia floribunda Oliv., A. parviflora A.Chevalier, A. gabonensis (Pellegr.) Bamps, A. marienii Staner, A. stanerana Exell & Mendonca occur in several countries of Central Africa. |
| Alnus cordata | Alnus cordata is a deciduous medium sized upright tree, generally up to 25 m tall although occasionally this may be exceeded in favourable conditions, crown ovoid-conic, stems angled, soon glabrous, sticky red-grown. Leaves alternate, simple, broadly oval to rounded, 5-12 cm long, base cordate to wedge-shaped (heart-shaped), margin unevenly sharply toothed, glossy green above, paler with a few scattered brown hairs below particularly in vein axils and along midrib, petioles 2-3 cm long. New leaves at the beginning of the season are orange-tinged. Flowers monoecious; males flowers yellow-green, elongated, catkins about 5-13 cm long, in hanging clusters; females very small (6 mm) reddish green turning into a small cone, upright appearing in early spring, persistent in winter. Fruit cone-like, woody, 20-25 mm long, green turning reddish brown when ripe, contains numerous small winged seeds, ripens in early fall and persists through the winter. Twig: Slender, olive green, slightly sticky when young, light colored lenticels; buds are stalked, green turning red and 6.4 mm long. Bark greenish grey with numerous lenticels when young, often appearing blistered; later becoming a light grey-brown with small fissures and flat ridges. |
| Alstonia congensis | Alstonia congensis is a tall forest tree reaching 30 m high; bole cylindrical, fluted at the base or columnar up to 7m. Bark rough with large solitary lenticels. Slash yellow-brown, thin abundant white latex. Leaves simple, in whorls, obovate or spathulate, up to 12 cm long; apex rounded, often apiculate or sometimes emarginate; venation conspicuous. Inflorescence glabrous and capitate. Fruit a black dehiscent follicle, long and narrow, up to 40 cm long. Seeds numerous, hairy. Alstonia congensis is considered endangered in its native range. The specific epithet refers to Congo, Africa where specimens for scientific identification of the species were first collected. |
| Altingia excelsa | Altingia excelsa is an evergreen, monoecious, large and lofty tree, 40-60 m high, with straight bole and branching at 20-35 m above the ground. Young trees are very elegant with a dense pyramidal (later becoming more rounded) crown. The bark light grey, smooth with narrow, longitudinal fissures and irregularly flakes. Leaves alternate, simple, elliptical to oblong or ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 6 -12 cm long by 2.5 -5.5 cm wide, with finely toothed margins. Stipules are very small and caducous. Flowers unisexual with male and female flowers in separate inflorescences, but on the same tree. Female flowers 4-18 rounded heads borne together, 1.2-2.5 cm in diameter. Male racemes 6-14 heads per inflorescence, 1-2 cm long, consisting of masses of stamen. Petals and sepals are absent in both female and male flowers. Fruit a brown, four-compartment capsule, 1.2-2.5 cm by 1.2-2 cm on a 2-3.5 long peduncle that opens at maturity. Each of the four compartments contains 1(2) fertile seeds and up to 35 sterile seeds in each of the 4 compartments. Seed flattened, obovate and surrounded by a sweetly scented narrow wing. The genus Altingia contains 8 species and is distributed from southern Tibet to India and mainland South East Asia and only A. excelsa is represented in Malesian areas. |
| Anacardium occidentale | Anacardium occidentale is a medium-sized tree, spreading, evergreen, much branched; grows to a height of 12 m. When grown on lateritic, gravelly, coastal sandy areas, it rarely exceeds 6 m and develops a spreading habit and globose shape with crown diameter to 12 m. Grown inland on loams, it reaches 15 m and is much branched, with a smaller (4-6 m) crown diameter. The root system of a mature A. occidentale, when grown from the seed, consists of a very prominent taproot and a well-developed and extensive network of lateral and sinker roots. Leaves simple, alternate, coriaceus, glabrous, obovate, rounded at ends, 10-18 x 8-15 cm, with short petiole, pale green or reddish when young and dark green when mature. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle-like cluster commonly bearing male and hermaphroditic flowers. The male flowers are the most numerous and usually bear 1 exserted stamen and 9 small inserted ones. A. occidentale normally comes into flowering in 3 to 5 years. The nut, which is the true fruit, dries and does not split open. Inside the poisonous shell is a large curved seed, nearly 2.5 cm long, the edible cashew nut. As the nut matures, the stalk (receptacle) at the base enlarges rapidly within a few days into the fleshy fruitlike structure, broadest at the apex, popularly known as the fruit. This thin-skinned edible cashew fruit has a light yellow spongy flesh, which is very juicy, pleasantly acidic and slightly astringent when eaten raw and highly astringent when green. The generic name was given by Linnaeus and refers to the vaguely heart-shaped look of its false fruit. |
| Annona cherimola | Annona cherimola is a fairly dense, fast-growing, evergreen tree, erect but low branched and somewhat shrubby or spreading; ranging from 5 to 9 m in height; and its young branchlets are rusty-hairy. The attractive leaves are single and alternate, 2-ranked, with minutely hairy petioles 6 to 12.5 mm long; ovate to elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, short blunt-pointed at the apex; dark green and slightly hairy on the upper surface, velvety on the underside; 7.5-15 cm long, 3.8-8.9 cm wide. The fragrant flowers are borne solitary or in groups of 2 or 3, on short, hairy stalks along the branches, have 3 outer, greenish, fleshy, oblong, downy petals to 3 cm long and 3 smaller, pinkish inner petals. The compound fruit is conical or somewhat heart-shaped, 10-20 cm long and up to 10 cm in width, weighing on the average 150-500 g but extra large specimens may weigh 2.7 kg or more. The skin may be smooth with fingerprint like markings or covered with conical or rounded protuberances. The fruit opens to expose the snow-white, juicy flesh, of pleasing aroma and delicious, subacid flavor; and containing numerous hard, brown or black, beanlike, glossy seeds, 1-2 cm long. |
| Annona muricata | Annona muricata is a slender, evergreen tree, 5-10 m in height and 15 cm in diameter; trunk straight; bark smooth, dull grey or grey-brown, rough and fissured with age; inner bark pinkish and tasteless; branches at first ascending with the crown forming an inverted cone, later spreading; crown at maturity spherical due to lack of apical dominance; twigs brown or grey, bearing minute raised dots (lenticels); root system extensive and superficial, spreading beyond the diameter of the crown although shallow rooted; juvenile plants have a taproot that is eventually lost. Leaves alternate, 7.6-15.2 cm long, 2.5-7.6 cm wide, leathery, obovate to elliptic, glossy on top, glabrous on underside, simple; stipules absent; blade oblanceolate, green on top, paler and dull on under side with fine lateral nerves; a strong, pungent odour; petioles short, 3-10 mm long. Flower terminal or lateral, large; stalks stout, green, 1.3-1.9 cm long; 3 sepals, minute, inconspicuous, broad, green, 3 mm long, triangular; petals yellowish-green, 6 in 2 whorls of 3, outer petals larger, ovate-acute, valvate, cordate with pointed apex (heart shaped), 4-5 x 3-4 cm, 3 mm thick and fleshy, fitting together at edges in bud and rough on the outside; 3 inner petals, narrow, smaller, nearly 3.8 cm long, thinner, rounded, concave with fingernail-shaped base and overlapping edges; stamens numerous, shield shaped, united below; anthers parallel and opening longitudinally; carpels numerous, overtopping the stamens, each with 1 ovule; pistils white, narrow, 5 mm long, with sticky stigmas. Fruit 14-40 x 10-18 cm, weighing up to 7 kg, ovoid, heart shaped, an oblong syncarp composed of numerous united pistils, pistils end in a fleshy spine or short base of spine 1.5 mm or more in length, which grows from the style; often asymmetric due to incomplete fertilization of the ovules; epidermis often shining, dark green, with short, fleshy spines covering each carpel; pulp white, fibrous and juicy; seeds shiny, dark brown or black, oblong, up to 2 cm long, 0.7 cm wide. The genus name ‘Annona’ is from the Latin word ‘anon’, meaning ‘yearly produce’, referring to the fruit production habits of the various species in this genus. |
| Argania spinosa | Argania spinosa is a medium-sized, thorny, evergreen tree, 8-10 m high, occasionally attaining 21 m with main trunk 1 m in diameter. Its knotty trunk can sometimes have several criss-crossed stems. Leaves small, clustered, lanceolate, evergreen, tough, paler on the underside. Inflorescence axillary; flower greenish-yellow, hermaphrodite. Fruit green to bright yellow, round to oval, ovoid drupe; epicarp thick, bitter, gummy; mesocarp plus endocarp fleshy, containing an unpleasant milky latex. The fruit is beaten off the branches and, in the past, it was fed to goats then the nut recovered from the animal dung. Today, in many cases, the fruit is gathered and the nut extracted by machines. There are 1-3 nuts per fruit; nuts oval, brown, about 2 cm long, with an extremely hard shell, containing 1-3 almond-shaped kernels |
| Artocarpus altilis | Artocarpus altilis is a large, attractive, evergreen tree, reaching heights of 15-20 m; bark smooth, light coloured; trunk up to 1.2 m in diameter, may reach a height of 4 m before branching; 2 large stipules enclosing the terminal bud, up to 30 cm long at maturity, yellowing and falling when leaves fold or inflorescence emerges. Leaves thick, leathery; top dark green, often glossy; underside dull with an elevated midrib and main veins; striking variation in leaf outline and dissection; leaves broadly obovate to broadly ovate, varying in size and shape; juvenile leaves on young trees and new shoots of mature trees usually larger, more dissected and more hirsute; leaves sometimes smooth but often with few to many pale to reddish hairs, especially on the midrib and veins. Fruit a highly specialized structure, a syncarp, composed of 1500-2000 flowers attached to the fruit axis or core; bulk of fruit formed from the persistent perianth of each flower; perianths are fused together except at base. As the fruit develops, this area grows vigorously and becomes fleshy at maturity, forming the edible portion of the fruit; tough rind composed of 5- to 7-sided disks, each the surface of an individual flower; 2-3 strap-shaped, reflexed stigmas protrude from the centre of the disk and often leave a small distinctive scar when they blacken and wither; rind at maturity usually stained with latex exudations. Fruit globose to oblong, 12-20 x 12 cm; rind light green, yellowish-green or yellow when mature, flesh creamy white or pale yellow; surface varies from smooth to slightly bumpy or spiny, with individual disks ranging from areolate to slightly raised and flattened, to widely conical, up to 3 mm high and 5 mm across at the base, to narrowly conical up to 5 mm long; seedless, some forms seeded. Seeds have a thin, dark-brown outer skin about 0.5 mm thick and an inner, fragile, paperlike membrane that surrounds the fleshy, white edible portion of the seed. The generic name comes from the Greek words ‘artos’ (bread) and ‘karpos’ (fruit). The fruit is eaten and is commonly called breadfruit. |
| Asimina triloba | A. triloba is a small deciduous understorey tree, up to 9 m tall. Grown in full sun, the pawpaw tree develops a narrowly pyramidal shape with dense, drooping foliage down to the ground level. In the shade it has a more open branching habit with few lower limbs and horizontally held leaves. Leaves large, green, simple, alternate 17.8-25.4 cm long, elliptical to oblanceolate, spread out in umbrella-like whorls, entire, and papery, emit a strong tomato or green pepper smell when crushed. Flowers cup-shaped, up to 5 cm wide, first green, turning deep reddish-purple (3 green sepals and 6 purple petals in two tiers), not showy but fragrant. The species name, triloba, refers to the calyx (the outer most flower whorl, made up of the sepals), which consists of three triangular-shaped sepals. Fruit oblong, large edible berry, 5-16 cm long and 3-7 cm wide, weighing 20-500 g, with numerous seeds; green when unripe, maturing to yellow or brown, aromatic, the yellow pulp soft and sweet, blending the flavors of banana and custard with a lovely texture reminiscent of the avocado. Twigs stout with naked red-brown hairy buds. Bark thin, smooth, dark brown, often with gray blotches and small wart-like projections on older trees. |
| Aucomea klaineana | Aucoumea klaineana is a dioecious, medium-sized to large evergreen tree up to 50(-60) m tall; bole cylindrical, often contorted and bent, up to 110(-240) cm in diameter, with buttresses up to 3 m high, and clear of branches up to 21 m. The bark 0.5-2 cm thick, greyish to orange-brown, smooth and spotted with white, yellow, orange or red bands (resulting from lichens) in young trees, detaching in more or less thick rectangular brown scales revealing orange bark in adult trees, lenticellate, slash strongly resinous, pinkish-red, fibrous; crown rather open structured. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate; stipules absent; rachis up to 40 cm long; leaflets 7-13, petiolule up to 4 cm long, blade ovate to oblong, 1030 cm × 4-7 cm, rounded at base, acuminate at apex, margin entire, leathery. Inflorescence an axillary or terminal panicle up to 20 cm long; male inflorescence comprising up to 5 times more flowers than the female. Flowers unisexual, regular, 5-merous; sepals lanceolate, up to 5 mm long, tomentose, greenish; petals spatulate, 5-6 mm long, tomentose on both sides, whitish; extra-staminal disk present consisting of 2-lobed nectaries; male flowers with 10 stamens and rudimentary pistil; female flowers with 10 staminodes and a superior, 5-locular ovary, each locule with 2 ovules but only 1 ovule developing. Fruit a capsule up to 5 cm × 3 cm, opening with 5 valves from the base, 5-seeded. It is monotypic, and characterized by its extra-staminal disk and dry, dehiscent fruit (pseudocapsule), which after opening releases 5 seeds covered by a winged endocarp. Seeds enclosed by endocarp (‘pyrenes’), ovoid extending into a wing 2-3 cm × 0.5 cm; cotyledons suborbicular, thin and foliaceous. |
| Averrhoa carambola | Averrhoa carambola is a small, evergreen, multistemmed tree 3-5 m high or rarely 10 m high, attaining 15 cm diameter at the base; bark light brown, smooth or finely fissured. Leaves alternate, pinnate, 15-25 cm long, disposed more or less in a horizontal plane, shortly petiolate with 7-9 pendant leaflets; leaves have the peculiarity of being sensitive to touch in the same way as certain Mimosa species. Inflorescence in panicles 2-5 cm long in the axils of old leaves; flowers pentamerous, with a calyx of 5 pink sepals surrounding the purple corolla; androecium contains 5 fertile stamens and 5 staminoids; gynoecium bears 5 slender united styles. Fruit a large, indehiscent berry, 5-8 cm long; with a characteristic shape in cross-section resembling a 5-pointed star; yellowish-green, becoming orange-yellow when ripe. Each cell of the fruit contains 5 arillate seeds. The generic name is after Averrhoes (1126-98), the widely known Arab Philosopher. The specific name, ‘carambola’, is said to have come from Malabar and was adopted early by the Portuguese. |
| Azadirachta indica | Azadirachta indica is a small to medium-sized tree, usually evergreen, up to 15 (30 max.) m tall, with a round, large crown up to 10 (20 max.) m in diameter; branches spreading; bole branchless for up to 7.5 m, up to 90 cm in diameter, sometimes fluted at base; bark moderately thick, with small, scattered tubercles, deeply fissured and flaking in old trees, dark grey outside and reddish inside, with colourless, sticky foetid sap. Leaves alternate, crowded near the end of branches, simply pinnate, 20-40 cm long, exstipulate, light green, with 2 pairs of glands at the base, otherwise glabrous; petiole 2-7 cm long, subglabrous; rachis channelled above; leaflets 8-19, very short petioluled, alternate proximally and more or less opposite distally, ovate to lanceolate, sometimes falcate (min. 2) 3.5-10 x 1.2-4 cm, glossy, serrate; apex acuminate; base unequal. Inflorescence an axillary, many-flowered thyrsus, up to 30 cm long; bracts minute and caducous; flowers bisexual or male on same tree, actinomorphic, small, pentamerous, white or pale yellow, slightly sweet scented; calyx lobes imbricate, broadly ovate and thin, puberulous inside; petals free, imbricate, spathulate, spreading, ciliolate inside. Fruit 1 (max. 2)-seeded drupe, ellipsoidal, 1-2 cm long, greenish, greenish-yellow to yellow or purple when ripe; exocarp thin, mesocarp pulpy, endocarp cartilaginous; seed ovoid or spherical; apex pointed; testa thin, composed of a shell and a kernel (sometimes 2 or 3 kernels), each about half of the seed’s weight. |
| Bixa orellana | Bixa orellana is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 2-8 m high; trunk up to 10 cm in diameter; bark light to dark brown, tough, smooth, sometimes fissured, lenticellate; inner bark pinkish towards the outside with orange sap, slightly bitter; twigs green with minute, rusty, reddish-brown scales, becoming dark brown. Leaves spirally arranged, simple, stipulate, ovate, 7.5-24 x 4-16 cm, shallowly cordate to truncate at base, longly acuminate at apex, green or dark green above, grey or brownish-green beneath; scaly when young, glabrous; petiole terete, thickened at both ends, 2.5-12 cm long. Flowers in terminal branched panicles, 8-50 flowered, fragrant, 4-6 cm across; pedicel scaly, thickened at the apex, bearing 5-6 large glands; sepals 4-5, free, obovate, 1-1.2 cm long, caducous, covered with reddish-brown scales; petals 4-7, obovate, 2-3 x 1-2 cm, pinkish, whitish or purplish tinged; stalks scaly; stamens numerous, 1.6 cm long; anthers violet; pistil 1.6 cm long, composed of bristly 1-celled, superior ovary; style thickened upwards, 12-15 mm long; a short, 2-lobed stigma. Fruit a spherical or broadly elongated ovoid capsule, 2-4 x 2-3.5 cm, flattened, 2 valved, more or less densely cloaked with long bristles, green, greenish-brown or red when mature; seeds numerous, obovoid and angular, 4.5 mm long, with bright orange-red fleshy coats. ‘Bixa’ is derived from a local South American name. |
| Boscia angustifolia | Boscia angustifolia is a shrub or small evergreen tree to 10 (14) m high, crown rounded, branches erect, bark smooth, light grey, fissured, glabrous, slash yellow; twigs covered with small, coriaceous leaves, in clusters of 3-10 on older branches, solitary on 1-year-old shoots. Leaves lanceolate or linear, oblong, mucronate, obtuse or retuse at the tip, rounded to cuneate at base, 6.5 cm x 1.5 cm, coriaceous, spread or erect, mat-green, nerves prominent, venation reticulate, midrib prominent below, stipules absent. Flowers small (7 mm), greenish-white, clustered in short, simple, terminal racemes about 7 cm in diameter, fragrant, sepals 4, ovate, stamina 3-8. Fruit a berry, spherical, 6-13 mm in diameter, often in groups of 3-5, rough skinned, yellowish when mature, containing 7 cream-coloured seeds. Two varieties are recognized: var. corymbosa’s leaves are minutely pubescent and variety angustifolia leaves are completely glabrous on the underside. The specific epithet angustifolia means narrow-leaved. |
| Boscia senegalensis | Boscia senegalensis is an evergreen undershrub or more rarely a shrub, usually 1-2 m tall, but sometimes up to 4 m, particularly in good conditions;stem darkish. Leaves of a greenish mat hue, coriaceus, spread or erect, elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, obtuse or mucronate, reaching 12 cm x 4 cm, with 5-6 lateral veins arranged in arcs ending at the tip of the following vein and linked together by a network of smaller veins producing a polygonal pattern on the lower side of the leaf. Veins protruding on the lower face; white veins very conspicuous on the upper side, contrasting with the green of the leaf blade. Flowers have a tiny pedicel, they are hairy, greenish-white with four valvular, hairy sepals, no petals, 6-20 free stamens inserted at the base of a short gynophorum inside a thick disc sometimes somewhat fringed. Ovary ovoid with very short style and only one loculum with many ovules. Fruit a spherical berry, 1.5 (1.2) cm in diameter, yellow when mature, shortly subsessile, clustered in small bunches (with usually 2-3 fruits only). Slightly but not always hairy. The epicarp is crustaceus; the pulp is translucent, of jelly-like texture, slightly sweet but otherwise tasteless. It contains 1-2 (1-4) ventrally flattened seeds, greenish when mature. |
| Bruguiera gymnorhiza | Bruguiera gymnorhiza is an evergreen tree 8–25(-35) m tall with straight trunk 40–90 cm dbh, buttressed at the base and with many upright pneumatophores rising to 45 cm from long horizontal roots. Bark thick, smooth to roughly fissured, grey to blackish; inner bark reddish. Leaves opposite, elliptical, 9–20 cm long, 5–7 cm wide, acute at both ends, entire, without visible veins, thick, leathery, glabrous. Petiole 2–4.5 cm long. Flowers single in leaf axils, 3–4 cm long, usually drooping on stalk of 1–2.5 cm, red to yellowish or cream-coloured. Calyx with 10–14 very narrow, leathery lobes. Petals 10–14, 13–15 mm long, white, turning brown, each with 2 narrow lobes ending in 3–4 bristles. Stamens 2, nearly hidden, at base of each petal. Pistil has 3–4-celled inferior ovary, each cell with 2 ovules, stigma with 3–4 short forks. Fruits a drooping berry, ovoid or turbinate 2–2.5 cm long. Seed 1, viviparous 1.5–2 cm in diameter |
| Cadaba farinosa | Cadaba farinosa is a slender shrub with a strongly furrowed stem, rarely straight with a yellowish grey bark. Young twigs densely covered with sessile or subsessile scales, sometimes mixed with stiff glandular and eglandular hairs. Leaves numerous and small, alternate on young shoots, clustered on older wood; leaf blade elliptic to obovate, 4-40 x 3-30 mm, apically rounded or retuse, mucronate, basally rounded or cuneate, farinose on both surfaces or glabrescent; petiole up to 3-4 mm long, densely farinose. Flowers yellowish-green in racemes with farinose axis, 0.8-4.5 cm long. Bracts trifid with reduced central segment, pedicels 0.7-1.5 cm long. Sepals 4, ovate-elliptic, commonly 5-12 x 4 mm, farinose outside, puberulous at margins. Petals 4, with claw 6-7 mm long and oblanceolate blade, 4-5 mm long. Androphore 7-9 mm long; stamens 5 with filaments 1-1.4 cm long, anthers 3.5 mm long. Gynophore 0.8-1.2 cm long, sparsely covered with subsessile or short-stalked glands. Ovary cylindrical, farinose and with a flattened stigma. Fruit oblong, cylindrical with contractions 5cm long and densely farinose. The interior of the fruit is orange-red when mature. Seeds are the size of a millet grain, comma-shaped, shiny, dark brown, and arranged in a single layer within the fruit. Two subspecies are recognized; subsp. farinosa with young twigs densely covered with sessile scales, pedicels and sepals shorter, subsp. adenotricha with young twigs covered with glandular or simple hairs often mixed with sessile scales, pedicels and sepals longer. C. farinosa Forssk. subsp. rarifolia is reported in Pakistan. |
| Calophyllum brasiliense | Calophyllum brasiliense is a medium-sized, evergreen tree 12-20 m tall and 0.5 m or more in diameter, with a dense crown. Under favorable conditions the tree grows 30-45 m tall with long, straight clear trunk 1-1.8 m in diameter and no buttresses. The dense crown, abundant white flowers, brown fruits, and whitish latex can recognize María. The bark is light grey and smooth or slightly fissured, with numerous protuberances on large trunks; inner bark whitish and bitter. Twigs green, 4-angled, minutely hairy when young, becoming grey. The leaves are opposite, stiff, elliptic, 6.3-12.5 cm long and 3.2-6.3 cm wide, dark green and shiny on the upper surface, with many straight parallel lateral veins at nearly right angles with the midrib. Petioles are 0.6-1.9 cm long, blades rounded or minutely notched at the apex, short pointed at the base, slightly leathery. Flowers are numerous, small fragrant, white 1-1.3 cm wide in lateral branched racemes 2.5-5 cm long, male and bisexual on the same tree. There are 4 white rounded and concave sepals, 2 about 0.6 cm long and 2 about half as long, widely spreading and turned back. Petals commonly absent or 1-4, smaller than the largest sepals, white; male flowers with 4-50 stamens in a prominent orange cluster more than 0.6 cm across and often a rudimentary pistil. Sexual flowers with 8-12 stamens and pistils consisting of a round, green ovary 0.3 inches in diameter, one-celled with one ovule, short bent style and flattened whitish stigma. The fruit is a 1-seeded brown drupe 2.5 cm in diameter. The generic name comes from the Greek words ‘kalos’-beautiful and ‘phullon’-leaf, meaning beautiful-leafed and the specific epithet means 'of Brazil'. |
| Calotropis procera | Calotropis procera is a shrub or small tree up to 2.5 m (max. 6) high, stem usually simple, rarely branched, woody at base and covered with a fissured, corky bark; branches somewhat succulent and densely white tomentose; early glabrescent. All parts of the plant exude a white latex when cut or broken. Leaves opposite, simple, subsessile, stipule absent; blade oblong-obovate to broadly obovate, 5-30 x 2.5-15.5 cm, apex abruptly and shortly acuminate to apiculate, base cordate, margins entire, succulent, white tomentose when young, later glabrescent and glaucous. Inflorescence a dense, multiflowered, umbellate cyme arising from the nodes and appearing axillary or terminal; flowers hermaphroditic, pentamerous; pedicle 1-3 cm long; calyx 5-lobed, shortly united at the base, lobes ovate, 4-7 x 3-4 mm, glabrescent. Fruit, a simple, fleshy, inflated, subglobose to obliquely ovoid follicle up to 10 cm or more in diameter; seeds numerous, flat obovate, 6 x 5 mm, with silky white pappus 3 cm or more long. The specific name, procera is Latin for tall or high. |
| Canarium indicum | Canarium indicum is an evergreen, dioecious, medium-sized to fairly large tree to 40 m tall and a diameter of up to 100 cm. The crown is large, dense crown and buttresses are upto m high. The bark is grey or brownish-grey to yellow-brown, smooth to scaly and dippled; inner bark laminated, reddish-brown to pinkish-brown, exuding a milky resin. Leaves imparipinnate, arranged spirally with 7-15 opposite leaflets; leaflets oblong, 13.5-36 by 4.4-21 cm, base rounded and slightly asymmetrical, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous; petiole 9 cm long. The stipule ovate to oblong, persistent, large and prominently dentate, rarely inserted on the petiole. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, broadly paniculate, 15-30 cm long; flowers numerous, creamy white, 3 merous; male flower 10 mm long, stamens 6, female ones up to 15 mm long. Fruit blue-black drupe, 35-60 mm by 15-30 mm, endocarp hard, thin and brittle, ovoid, circular to slightly triangular in cross-section, glabrous, and in groups of 6-12. Seeds brown, 3.5 by 2 cm, oily, palmatifid to 3 foliolate and variously folded cotyledons. The family Burseraceae consists of 16 genera and about 550 species in the tropical regions of both hemispheres. The genus Canarium (derived from the Malay name ‘kanari’, the local name for one of the species), contains about 75 species of trees which are mainly found in tropical Asia and the Pacific, and a few species in tropical Africa. |
| Canarium ovatum | Canarium ovatum is an attractive, symmetrically shaped evergreen tree, up to 20 m tall and 50 cm in diameter. Stipules persistent, deltoid to lingulate, 5-20 x 3-10 mm. Leaves 2-4-jugate, imparipinnate, spirally arranged, about 40 cm long; leaflets ovate to elliptic, 4-24 x 2-12 cm, stiff, coriaceous, entire, base oblique, rounded to subcordate, apex abruptly acuminate, 8-12 pairs of nerves. Inflorescence axillary, close together at the ends of branches, narrowly thyrsoid, 3-12 cm long, few flowers; flowers trimerous, unisexual, subsessile, pubescent, up to 12 mm long, calyx cupular, 7 mm long in male, 8-9 mm in female flowers; petals 2 x 1 cm; stamens 6, slightly adnate to the disk and sterile in female flowers; pistil absent in male flowers, 7 mm long in female. Fruit drupaceous, ovoid to ellipsoid, 3.5-6.25 x 2-2.75 cm, acute, triangular in cross-section; exocarp thin, glabrous, shiny, turning from light green to purplish-black; mesocarp fibrous, fleshy, thick and greenish-yellow in colour; endocarp (shell) elongated, stony, trigonous, pointed at base, blunt or obtuse at apex, tawny to dirty brown, sterile cells strongly reduced. Seed with 1 brown papery seed coat. Much of the kernel weight is made up of the cotyledons, which are about 4.1-16.6% of the whole fruit. The genus name Canarium comes from the vernacular name ‘kenari’ in the Molucca Isles. |
| Carapa guianensis | Carapa guianensis is a deciduous or semi-evergreen, monoecious, medium-sized to large trees up to 35 (max. 55) m tall; bole straight and cylindrical; branchless up to 20 (max. 30) m; up to 100 (max. 200) cm in diameter, sometimes fluted, with short buttresses up to 2 m high. Bark surface flaking into squarish scales or in horizontal strips, light grey to greyish brown or dark brown, sometimes reddish; inner bark fibrous, red or pinkish brown. Young plants produce taproots but the trees tend to become surface rooted. Leaves alternate, paripinnate with a dormant glandular leaflet at the apex, exstipulate; leaflets opposite, entire. Shows gigantic leaves in the monocaulous juvenile stage, decreasing in size when branching is initiated. Flowers small, white, borne in a large, axillary or subterminal thyrse; unisexual but with well-developed vestiges of the opposite sex; tetramerous to pentamerous (max. sextamerous); calyx lobed almost to the base; petals slightly contorted. Fruit dehiscent, 4-lobed, pendulous, subglobose, woody capsule containing 2-4 seeds in each lobe. Seeds smooth, pale brown, angular, with woody sarcotesta. |
| Carica papaya | Carica papaya is an evergreen, tree-like herb, 2-10 m tall, usually unbranched, although sometimes branched due to injury, containing white latex in all parts. Stem cylindrical, 10-30 cm in diameter, hollow with prominent leaf scars and spongy-fibrous tissue. Has an extensive rooting system. Leaves spirally arranged, clustered near apex of trunk; petiole up to 1 m long, hollow, greenish or purplish-green; lamina orbicular, 25-75 cm in diameter, palmate, deeply 7-lobed, glabrous, prominently veined; lobes deeply and broadly toothed. Flowers tiny, yellow, funnel-shaped, solitary or clustered in the leaf axils, of 3 types; female flowers 3-5 cm long, large functional pistil, no stamens, ovoid-shaped ovary; male flowers on long hanging panicles, with 10 stamens in 2 rows, gynoecium absent except for a pistillode; hermaphrodite flowers larger than males, 5-carpellate ovary; occurrence depends on the season or age of the tree. Fruits large, cylindrical, with fleshy orange pulp, hollow berry, thin yellowish skin when ripe, varied. Fruits formed from female flowers are oblong, spherical, pear-shaped; from hermaphrodite flowers, long, obovoid or pyriform. Seeds numerous, small, black, round, covered with gelatinous aril. Small latex vessels extend throughout the tree and are particularly abundant in fruit that has reached full size but has not yet begun to ripen. The generic name is from the Latin ‘carica’, meaning ‘edible fig’, on account of the similarity of the leaves. |
| Carissa congesta | Carissa congesta is a rank-growing, straggly, woody, climbing shrub, usually growing to 3-5 m high, sometimes ascending to the tops of tall trees. Branches numerous and spreading, forming dense masses, set with sharp, simple or forked thorns, up to 5 cm long, in pairs in the axils of the leaves. Leaves evergreen, opposite, oval or elliptic, 2.5-7.5 cm long; dark-green, leathery, glossy on the upper surface, lighter green and dull on the underside. Flowers fragrant, tubular with 5 hairy lobes, twisted to the left in the bud instead of to the right as in other species; white, often tinged with pink, borne in terminal clusters of 2 to 12. Fruits in clusters of 3-10, oblong, broad-ovoid or round, 1.25-2.5 cm long; skin fairly thin but tough, purplish-red, turning dark-purple or nearly black when ripe; smooth, glossy; enclosing very acid to fairly sweet, often bitter, red or pink juicy pulp, exuding flecks of latex. There may be 2 to 8 small, flat, brown seeds. The name Carissa is probably derived from the Sanskrit ‘corissa’, a name for one of the Indian species of the genus. |
| Cassipourea malosana | Cassipourea malosana is an evergreen tree approximately 6-45 m in height. It bears a conspicuously straight, pale, cylindrical trunk and a small rounded crown. The branches radiate out at right angles to the trunk. Bark smooth, pale grey with well defined ring marks. Slash soft, pale orange with a darker outer edge. Leaves opposite, dark green, 5 x 3 cm, but variable in size; glossy, tough and borne on woody twigs, margins toothed or entire. Flowers 1-5(-8) per inflorescence, laterally placed under leaves; pedicels up to 4 mm, rarely 7 mm long, densely puberulous. Calyx 4-5-partite; tube 1 mm long; lobes 3.5-5 mm long, narrowly oblong-triangular, apex acute, densely appressed-pubescent externally, glabrous or very nearly so within. Petals 4-5 laciniate apically, anthers introrse. Ovary superior, 3-4 celled, glabrous or almost so with a few apical hairs. Fruit a thin fleshy dehiscent capsule, 1 cm long, becoming black when dry. The species is quite variable with regard to leaf morphology. The specific epithet malosana is after Mt. Malosa in Malawi where the type specimen was collected. |
| Casuarina equisetifolia | Casuarina equisetifolia is an evergreen, dioecious or monoecious tree 6-35 (60) m tall, with a finely branched crown. Crown shape initially conical but tends to flatten with age. Trunk straight, cylindrical, usually branchless for up to 10 m, up to 100 (max. 150) cm in diameter, occasionally with buttresses. Bark light greyish-brown, smooth on young trunks, rough, thick, furrowed and flaking into oblong pieces on older trees; inner bark reddish or deep dirty brown, astringent. The branchlets are deciduous, drooping, needlelike, terete but with prominent angular ribs, 23-38 cm x 0.5-1 mm, greyish-green, articles 5-8 mm long, glabrous to densely pubescent, dimorphic, either deciduous or persistent. Twigs deciduous, entirely green or green only at their tips. The minute, reduced, toothlike leaves are in whorls of 7-8 per node. Flowers unisexual; perianth absent, replaced by 2 bracteoles. Male flowers in a terminal, simple, elongated spike, 7-40 mm long, borne in whorls with 7-11.5 whorls/cm of spike, with a single stamen. Female inflorescence on a short lateral branchlet, cylindrical, cone-shaped or globose, 10-24 x 9-13 mm; bracteoles more acute, more or less protruding from the surface of the cone. Infructescence a woody, conelike structure. Fruit a grey or yellow-brown winged nut (samara). Seed solitary. Casuarina is from the Malay word ‘kasuari’, from the supposed resemblance of the twigs to the plumage of the cassowary bird. One of the common names of Casuarina species, ‘she-oak’, widely used in Australia, refers to the attractive wood pattern of large lines or rays similar to oak but weaker. The specific name is derived from the Latin ‘equinus’, pertaining to horses, and ‘folium’, a leaf, in reference to the fine, drooping twigs, which are reminiscent of coarse horse hair. |
| Casuarina oligodon | Casuarina oligodon is an evergreen tree to 30 m tall, bark grey-brown, fissured, peeling off in irregular flakes, outer bark red, hard. Leaves reduced to minute scales, arranged in whorls of 5-7 at the internodes of the thin, pendulous, green branchlets which function as leaves (phylloclades). There are 6 leaf scales in each whorl. Branchlets are grooved. Flowers unisexual, male flowers are borne in spikes 1.5-4.5 cm long, usually borne on terminal branches, each flower consists of one stamen surrounded by 4 scales. Female cones shortly cylindrical or sub-cylindrical, 4-10 mm long, 0.7-0.9 mm diameter, each flower consists of an ovary with 2 branch thread-like styles and of 1 large and 2 small scales. They are red. The fruit is a 1-seeded winged nut initially enclosed in accrescent woody bracteoles, which separate at maturity appearing like a dehiscent capsule. The fruit proper is a small samara about 4 mm long that is held by the enlarged and hardened scales fused into a small woody cone less than 1 cm in diameter and dull light brown. Two subspecies have been recognized, ssp. oligodon which occurs in Papua New Guinea and ssp. abbreviata in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. They differ in the length of the leaves (teeth), ssp. abbreviata teeth are 0.4-0.5 m long, those of ssp. oligodon are 0.8-1 mm long. Casuarina is from the Malay word ‘kasuari’, from the supposed resemblance of the twigs to the plumage of the cassowary bird. One of the common names of Casuarina species, ‘she-oak’, widely used in Australia, refers to the attractive wood pattern of large lines or rays similar to oak but weaker. The specific epithet comes from the Greek olig- (few), and -odon (tooth); meaning with few teeth. |
| Cedrus deodara | Cedrus deodara is a large evergreen, dioecious tree, to 65 m tall and more than 4 m DBH, crowns become rounded or broad and flat with horizontal or slightly ascending or descending branches, which are not whorled but arise irregularly from the stem. The bark is greyish brown, dark, almost black, with vertical and diagonal cracks dividing it into irregular oblong scales. Leaves solitary, acicular, stiff, sharp-pointed, 25-37 mm long, silvery or silvery-blue, on the normal long shoots spirally arranged, and on the short arrested shoots in pseudowhorls. Male flowers solitary and erect or catkins, pale green to yellowish green with purplish tinge, oblong, ovoid, and 2.5 to 4.6 cm long by 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter. On opening they elongate rapidly to 5-7.5 cm in length and become yellow with pollen. The female flowers are solitary and erect at the end of arrested branchlets; flowers, at the time of pollination, are oblong, ovoid, 1.2 to 2.0 cm long and 0.6 cm in diameter, pale glaucous green. The scales occur in a spiral of 8 x 5; at the time of pollination they stand perpendicular to the axis, exposing ovules and close after pollination. Cones solitary or in pairs, erect, ovoid or ellipsoidal, 7.5-12 cm long and 5-8.7 cm in diameter with numerous fan-shaped scales arranged in spiral of 8 x 5 on persistent woody central axis, rounded at the apex, bluish when young, reddish-brown when ripe. On each scale rests a pair of winged seeds. Seed triangular, winged, 2.5 to 3.7 cm long; wings with rounded corners, 2-2.5 cm broad. |
| Ceratonia siliqua | Ceratonia siliqua is an evergreen shrub or tree up to 10 m high, crown broad semi-spherical, thick trunk, brown rough bark and sturdy branches. Leaves 10-20 cm long, alternate, pinnate, with or without a terminal leaflet. Leaflets 3-7 cm long, ovate to elliptic, 4-10 normally opposite pairs, coriaceous, dark green and shiny above, pale green beneath finely veined with margins slightly ondulate, tiny stipules. Flowers green-tinted red, small, numerous, 6-12 mm long, spirally arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes borne on spurs from old wood and even on the trunk (cauliflory). Pentamerous symmetry with calyx but not corolla placed on a short pedicel. Calyx disc-shaped, reddish-green, bears nectaries. Females consist of a pistil (6-8.5 mm) on a disk and rudimentary stamens, 5 hairy sepals. Males consist of a nectarial disk, 5 stamens with delicate filaments hairy sepals. In the centre of the disk there is a rudimentary pistil. Hermaphrodite flowers a combination; containing a pistil and a complement of 5 stamens. The fruit indehiscent pod, elongated, compressed, straight or curved, thickened at the sutures, 10-30 x 1.5-3.5 cm, about 1 cm thick with blunt or subacute apex. Pods brown, wrinkled surface, leathery when ripe. Seeds occur in the pod transversally, separated by mesocarp; very hard, numerous, compressed ovate-oblong, 8-10 x 7-8 mm, 3-5 mm thick; testa is hard, smooth, glossy brown, hilium minute. The scientific name of the carob tree derives from the Greek ‘keras’, horn, and Latin ‘siliqua’, alluding to the hardness and shape of the pod. The common name originates from the Hebrew-'kharuv’, from which other vernacular names are derived. |
| Chamaecytisus palmensis | Chamaecytisus palmensis is an attractive, evergreen shrub or small tree with long, drooping branches, when managed as a single-stemmed tree it reaches heights of 7-8 m, but its common growth form is a multi-stemmed, spreading shrub of 5-7 m. Leaves are on short petioles, leaflets lanceolate, glabrous above, pubescent below. Flowers white, in umbels mostly at the end of short branchlets, fragrant, pea-like, produced in profuse masses; calyx tubular, pubescent, 10-12mm long; standard about twice as long. Fruit a pod, 4-5 cm long, 12 mm broad, pubescent, black when ripe. Seeds black, 8-12 per pod. |
| Chrysophyllum cainito | Chrysophyllum cainito is an evergreen tree that can grow up to a height of 15 m and trunk diameter of 60 cm. Bole usually straight, cylindrical, but often fluted or spurred at the base; buttresses small or absent; bark surface rough, irregularly fissured and brown; inner bark fibrous, orange-white mottled to yellow-white, exuding white latex. Young twigs reddish-brown and hairy. Leaves alternate, distichous or spirally arranged, simple, oval or oblong, 7.6-12.7 cm long, 3.8-5.8 cm wide, deep green, hairless and glossy above, golden-brown with a sheen like that of satin beneath; exstipulate; apex mostly abruptly short pointed, short pointed at base, with untoothed edges and slightly thickened; tertiary veins often parallel to the secondaries and descending from the margin. Petiole 1.3-1.6 cm long, reddish-brown, hairy. Inflorescences axillary, ramiflorous or cauliflorous. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, fasciculate or, rarely, solitary; small and inconspicuous, purplish-white, axillary. Calyx a single whorl of 4-6; usually 5 imbricate or quincuncial sepals, sometimes accrescent in fruit, frequently ciliate. Corolla 5-lobed, globose, campanulate or cylindrical; tube shorter than, equalling or exceeding the lobes, lobes (min. 4) 5 (max. 8), simple. Stalk slender, hairy, reddish-brown, 64-95 mm long. Stamens 4-8, usually fixed in the corolla tube; ovary superior, (min. 4) 5 (max. 12)-locular with 1 ovule per cell (axile placentation); style included; anthers extrorse in bud, hairy or glabrous. Staminodes rarely present, as small lanceolate or subulate structures in the corolla lobe sinuses, alternating with the stamens; disk absent. Fruit is commonly round, sometimes oblate, and 5-10 cm in diameter. Rind thick, leathery, smooth surfaced, somewhat glossy, dull purple in some varieties, light green in others; has a gummy latex; flesh white and jellylike. On cutting the fruit transversely, it is found differentiated into 2 kinds of flesh; directly under the tenacious skin is a layer of soft, somewhat granular flesh, concolorous with the skin, and not very juicy; enclosed by this are 8 translucent, whitish segments in which the seeds are embedded. Normally there is 1 seed in each segment, but frequently several are aborted, leaving 3-5 in the fruit. Seeds ovate to elliptic in outline, laterally compressed, 2 cm long, hard, brown and glossy with an adaxial scar. The generic name is based on Greek words for ‘gold’ and ‘leaf’ and refers to the leaves of some species that are often covered with golden hairs underneath. When the fruit is halved transversely, these cut segments present a star-like appearance, giving the tree the common name of ‘star apple’. Two races are common, one green fruited and the other purple fruited; they are not known to differ in flavour or other characteristics except colour. |
| Cinnamomum tamala | Cinnamomum tamala is a moderate sized evergreen tree attaining a height of 8 m, and a girth of 150 cm. Its bark produces mucilage. Leaves lanceolate, glabrous; alternately placed, opposite and short stalked. 3-nerved from the base. The genus Cinnamomum has about 250 tropical tree and shrub species. The etymology is derived from the Greek word ‘kinnamomon’ (meaning spice).The Greeks borrowed the word from the Phoenicians, indicating that they traded with the East from early times. The specific epithet 'tamala' is after a local name of the plant in India. |
| Cinnamomum verum | Cinnamomum verum is an evergreen tree that reaches a height of 8-17 m in the wild. In an unharvested state, the trunk is stout, 30-60 cm in diameter, with a thick, grey bark and the branches set low down. Leaves stiff, extipulate, opposite, somewhat variable in form and size. Petiole 1-2 cm long, grooved on the upper surface. Lamina usually 5-18 x 3-10 cm, ovate or elliptic; base more or less rounded and the tip tends to be somewhat acuminate. There are 3, sometimes 5, conspicuous longitudinal veins found at the base of the lamina and running almost to the tip. The young leaves of the flush are reddish, later turning dark green above with paler veins and pale glaucous beneath. Flowers borne in lax axillary and terminal panicles on the ends of twigs. Peduncles creamy white, softly hairy, 5-7 cm long. Individual flowers very small, about 3 mm in diameter, pale yellow, with a foetid smell, each subtended by a small, ovate, hairy bract. The calyx is campanulate and pubescent with 6 acutely pointed segments. Corolla absent. Fruit a fleshy ovoid drupe, black, 1.5-2 cm long when ripe, with the enlarged calyx at the base. The etymology of cinnamon is derived from the Greek word ‘kinnamomon’ (meaning spice). The Greeks borrowed the word from the Phoenicians, indicating trade with the East from early times. Cinnamon is recorded in Sanskrit, the Old Testament, and in Greek medicinal works and was employed by the Egyptians for embalming purposes as early as 1485 BC. A species synonym, ‘zeylanicum’, refers to the place of origin, the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). |
| Citrus sinensis | Citrus sinensis is a small, shallow-rooted evergreen shrub or tree about 6-13 m high with an enclosed conical top and mostly spiny branches. Twigs angled when young, often with thick spines Leaves smooth, oval, 5-15 x 2-8 cm, dark green above, glossy, with a distinctive smell often similar to the fruit, petiole winged Flowers small, waxy greenish-white, fragrant; calyx broad saucer-shaped, petals 5, white elliptic, 1.3-2.2 cm long Fruits orange, reddish-green to yellowish-green, round, 4-12 cm, consist of a leathery peel 6 mm thick, tightly adherent, protecting the juicy inner pulp, which is divided into segments that may not contain seeds, depending on the cultivar The specific epithet (sinensis) refers to its Chinese origin |
| Coffea arabica | Coffea arabica is an evergreen, shrub or small tree, up to 5 m tall when unpruned, glabrous, with small glossy leaves. Leaves are simple, alternate, opposite, thin, dark-green, shiny surfaced, fairly stiff; axillary and sub-axillary buds often develop into reproductive lateral branches. Leaves petiolate, sometimes bearing interpetiolar stipules. Prominent leaf midrib and lateral veins. Flowers produced in dense clusters along reproductive branches in the axils of the leaves. White, sweet scented, star-shaped and carried on stout but short peduncles. Bracteoles united, forming a cup-shaped epicalyx at the base of the flower. There are 5 calyx segments halfway the length, spreading out very widely at the anthesis and 5 stamens inserted in the corolla tube. Anthers carried on long, slender, upright filaments. Ovary inferior, 2 united unilocular carpels, each containing a single ovule attached to the base of the carpel wall. The ovary bears a slender style, which terminates in short, pointed bifid stigmas. Fruit a drupe; pericarp composed of shiny exocarp, fleshy mesocarp and relatively thin but tough endocarp, in which the seeds are enclosed. Immature berries dull green; on ripening the skin colour changes through yellow to bright crimson. Each berry contains 2 seeds, 8.5-12.5 mm long, ellipsoidal in shape and pressed together by flattened surface that is deeply grooved; outer surface convex. Thin, silvery testa follows outline of endosperm, so fragments are often found in ventral groove after preparation. Seeds consist mainly of green corneous endosperm, folded in a peculiar manner, and a small embryo near the base. Dried seeds, after removal of the silvery skin, provide the coffee beans of commerce. The generic name is derived from the Arabic word used for the drink, which may have come from the region of Kefa in Ethiopia. |
| Cola nitida | Cola nitida is an understorey, evergreen tree, generally growing 9-12 m high, sometimes reaching 27 m, with a diameter up to 1.5 m, narrow buttresses extending for 1 m in old trees, or absent, bole not always straight and cylindrical; bark grey or greyish brown, rough with longitudinal fissures; slash pinkish red, thick and fibrous, darkening to brown on exposure. Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate; petiole 1.2-10 cm long; blade broadly oblong to broadly elliptic or elliptic-oblanceolate, 10-33 x 5-13 cm, apex abruptly and shortly acuminate, base obtuse or rounded, margins wavy, glabrous or nearly so; leathery, dark green lateral nerves 6-10. Inflorescence axillary, an irregularly branched panicles 5-10 cm long, shorter than the leaves; flowers unisexual, 5-merous, apetalous. Male flowers with cup-shaped calyx, about 2 cm in diameter, deeply lobed, stamens numerous, in two whorls. Female flowers with calyx about 5 cm in diameter, with 5 carpels and numerous rudimentary anthers at the base. Fruits oblong-ellipsoid follicles 13 x 7 cm, green, shiny-surfaced, smooth to the touch but knobbly with large tubercules. Seeds 4-8 (10) per carpel, ovoid or subglobose 3-3.5 x 2-2.5 cm, either red or white. |
| Colubrina arborescens | Colubrina arborescens is an evergreen or semi-deciduous tree to 25 m tall, 20-30 cm dbh, and sometimes a shrub with multiple stems. The bark on trunks is grey or brown, smoothish, fissured, or platy. Inner bark pink, brown, or reddish-brown. The roots are dark brown with reddish inner bark and are somewhat brittle. Leaves ovate to elliptic, alternately in two rows on twigs, papery to leathery, 5-18 cm long by 5-12 cm wide, pointed at the tip and rounded at the base, and prominent, curved veins. Flowers yellow or yellow-green, tiny, in short-stalked cymes in the leaf axils. Fruit a globose capsule, 6-10 mm in diameter, split into three parts Seeds globose, black, 3-3.5 mm, hard. |
| Copaifera langsdorfii | Copaifera langsdorfii is an evergreen tree to 6-12(-35) m tall, and 1m diameter. Leaves paripinnate, glabrous, subcoriaceous, 5-10cm long; leaflets 2-4 pairs, opposite or semi-alternate, petiolulate, elliptic ovoid, 2-6cm long, 1.2-2.5cm broad, with finely pinnate reticulate nervation, glandular-punctate. Flowers in terminal racemes to compound panicles with numerous, subsessile whitish flowers. Sepals 4, lanceolate, concave, firm, glabrous outside, pubescent inside. Petals absent. Stamens free, (8)10, anthers elliptic, versatile. Ovary hirsute, briefly stipitate. Fruit ovoid, compressed, 2 x 3cm, coriaceous, with one large seed partially covered with a thick aril. |
| Cordeauxia edulis | Cordeauxia edulis is an evergreen, multistemmed shrub up to 4 m high. A taproot system up to 3 m deep with small secondary rhizomes near the surface and nodules on younger roots. Leaves pinnate; leaflets ovate to oblong-ovate; leathery, with red glands on the lower surface. Flowers yellow. Pods each contain 1-4 round or ovoid seeds, mistakenly called nuts, 2.0-3.5 cm long. The specific name, ‘edulis’, means edible. |
| Cordia africana | Cordia africana is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree, 4-15 (30) m high, heavily branched with a spreading, umbrella-shaped or rounded crown. Bole typically curved or crooked. Bark greyish-brown to dark brown, smooth in young trees, but soon becoming rough and longitudinally fissured with age; young branchlets with sparse long hairs. Leaves alternate, simple, ovate to subcircular, 7.5-17.5 (max. 30) cm long, 3.5-10.2 (max. 30) cm broad; thinly leathery; dark green above, paler green and velvety below; with prominent parallel tertiary net-nerves (about 7 pairs of lateral nerves); apex broadly tapering or rounded; base rounded to shallowly lobed; margin entire; petiole slender, 2.5-7.6 cm long. Buds oval, stalkless, pleated open into flowers that are bisexual, white, sweet scented, shortly pedicelate or subsessile, massed in compact panicles covering the crown, with a white mass of attractive flowers; calyx less than 1 cm long, strongly ribbed, back of lobes covered with short, soft, brown hairs; corolla lobes crinkled, white, long-exerted, funnel-shaped, about 2.5 cm long; cymes many flowered. Fruit a drupe, smooth, spherical, oval tipped, fleshy, 1.3-1.5 cm long; green when young, yellow to orange when mature; with a sweet, mucilaginous pulp and short remains of the calyx at the base; contains 2-4 seeds, which lack endosperm. The generic name honours a 16th century German botanist, Valerius Cordus, and ‘africana’ simply means ‘from Africa’. The specific epithet of the synonym, ‘abyssinica’, implies that the plant was described from Ethiopia. |
| Coula edulis | Coula edulis is an evergreen, medium-size to large tree reaching 25 m, with a large, dense crown casting a deep shade. Form of the bole is generally short, bossed, branched low down, and sometimes slightly swollen at the base, not usually exceeding 6 m in length and 0.8 m in diameter. Bark thin, rather smooth, lenticillate, greenish-brown, slightly fissured; slash sepia or yellow; in young trees whitish and resinous. Leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate, oblong or elliptic, coriaceous, 10-30 x 4 cm. Secondary nerves impressed on the upper surface and prominent on the lower surface. Young shoots and leaves covered with rust-coloured, stellate hairs. Flowers small, in short axillary racemes and covered with rusty tomentum. They are tetramerous or pentamerous, with rather thick, glabrous, greenish-yellow petals. Fruit an ellipsoidal drupe, 3-4 cm long, with an extremely hard kernel. Flesh surrounding the kernel green or reddish, 5-6 mm thick and smooth. The specific name, ‘edulis’, means edible. |
| Cryptomeria japonica | Cryptomeria japonica is an evergreen tree that grows to a height of 35-60 m and attains a bole diameter of 1-3 m. Trunk straight, in old trees massive, buttressed; bark thin on young trees, smooth, purplish-brown, on large trees 2-3 cm thick, reddish-brown, weathering grey, exfoliating in long, shredding strips. Branches spreading to assurgent, forming a conical crown in young trees, self-pruning to leave a clear bole in large trees. Branch foliage dense, with leaves lasting 6-12 years, shedding not individual leaves but ultimate lateral branchlets which persist 4-8 years, these variable in length, spreading but incurved in various degrees, directed forward, linear-subulate, slightly flattened laterally, distinctly keeled abaxially, leathery, stiff, green, 3-20 (-25 but free up to 18 mm long) by 1-2 mm, apex acute; in juvenile leaves there are 2-3 resin ducts, in mature leaves this number is usually reduced to a single duct on the abaxial side of the stele. Flowers monoecious, male catkins long, clustered at the end of branchlets, anther cells 3-5 at the base of scales, near but above seed cones, axillary and crowded toward the ends of 2nd year branchlets, 3-6 x 2-3 mm, elongating up to 10 mm when ripe to shed pollen. Seed cones terminal on down-curved branchlets with normal leaves, often aggregated or solitary, occasionally with proliferating vegetative short shoot at apex, globose, squarrose with spreading bract-scale complexes, soft, woody, 12-25 mm diameter. Seeds 2-5 per bract-scale complex depending on space available when intercalary scale tissue develops, 4-5 by 3 mm, flattened, irregularly ovate with 2 wings of unequal (1-1.5 mm) width forming a strip around the seed. This is a monotypic timber-yielding genus. The generic name is derived from the Greek works cryptos (hidden), and meros (part), because the parts of the flower are not easy to distinguish. |
| Cunninghamia lanceolata | Cunninghamia lanceolata is an evergreen tree to 30 m tall and 2.5-3 m dbh. The crown is pyramidal or dark green. The branches are in whorls of 5-6 together, spreading and pendulous at the ends. Bark dark brown, fissured, shedding in long strips and exposing aromatic, yellowish or reddish inner bark. Leaves stiff, densely and spirally arranged, but spreading in 2 ranks, glossy deep green adaxially, linear-lanceolate, straight or slightly falcate, 3-6.5 cm long by 1.5-5 mm thick by 0.3-1.2 mm wide, with finely serrated margins. Male and female flowers in separate clusters at the end of the shoots. Pollen cone fascicles terminal, broadly obovoid, 1-3(-5) together, each with 8-20 cones, occasionally a few also around base of seed cone; peduncle 2-4 mm. Female cones ovoid or rounded, 2.5-5 cm long by 3-4 cm wide, solitary or several together; cone-scales brown with serrate margin and the apex elongated into a spine. The female cones are normally situated lower in the crown than the male cones. Seed on each scale, thin, dark brown, oblong or narrowly ovate, 7-8 mm long and 4-5 mm wide, surrounded by a thin membranous wing. The genus name is after James Cunninghame, , a British doctor in China, who collected (1701-2) and sent plants to England. The specific name ‘lanceolata’ is derived from a Latin word ‘lanceolatus’, meaning ‘having lance-shaped leaves’. |
| Cupressus lusitanica | Cupressus lusitanica is an evergreen tree, 35 m high, with a dense, conical crown. Branches spread out widely but terminate in pendulous branchlets. Trunk short, 70 cm in diameter. Bark on trunk is reddish-brown, exfoliating in long, narrow strips, eventually becoming roughened by the development of many short cracks. Branchlets covered with small, decussate, adpressed, acute, sessile, scale leaves with flexed tips. The distinctly bluish-green foliage is ovate, closely pressed, usually with long, pointed apex. Male flowers small, oblong or cylindrical; female subglobose, very small, composed of 6-14 fertile decussate scales with several ovules each. Cones ellipsoid; bluish-green when young turning reddish-brown when mature; 13-25 mm in diameter; composed of 6-12 woody, shieldlike scales, each bearing 8-10 seeds; male cones appear to be fat tips to branchlets and produce clouds of yellow pollen; female cones rounded, scales with central pointed projections. Seeds brown, with resin glands, up to 4 mm long, with a narrow wing. The Latin name ‘Cupresssus’ comes from the Greek ‘kuparissos’, which commemorates a youth of that name who was turned into a cypress tree by Apollo. The specific name is derived from Lusitania, Portugal, where the tree was introduced in the 17th century. |
| Cupressus torulosa | Cupressus torulosa is an evergreen tree 15-25(45) m tall, with a dbh of 40-60(90) cm. Crown large oval to broadly conical. Bark thick, grey brown or brown, peeling off in longitudinal strips. Branches slender, drooping, with thin, whip-like tips. Branchlets cylindrical, nearly quadrangular, branching in whorls, shoots in a single plane. Leaves scale-like, closely appressed, obtuse, dark green, often with a small dorsal furrow. Male cone subglobular, 5-6mm long. Female cones globose or elliptic, grouped on very short stalks, 10-20 mm across, green or purple when young, later turning dark brown, composed of 6-8(10) scales, with a small central depression and a small, triangular, reflexed mucro. Seeds 6-8 to each scale, red-brown. C. torulosa var. cashmeriana, the Kashmir cypress, is found in Tibet. It is a smaller tree of conical habit and flattened shoots. Leaves blue-green, outspread. Cones globose, 12 mm across, initially pale green and bluish pruinose, later dark brown, composed of 10 scales depressed at the centre, with a pointed, triangular and reflexed process, about 10 seeds to each scale. The Latin name ‘Cupresssus’ comes from the Greek ‘kuparissos’, which commemorates a youth of that name who was turned into a cypress tree by Apollo. The specific epithet means cylindrical with bulges or contractions at intervals. |
| Dacryodes edulis | Dacryodes edulis is a medium-sized, evergreen tree attaining a height of 18-40 m in the forest but not exceeding 12 m in plantations. It is generally branched from low down, with a deep, dense crown. The bole is rather short, slightly fluted, 50-170 cm in diameter and more or less sinuous. The scented, pale grey, rough bark exudes a whitish resin. Buttresses are absent. Leaves compound, imparipinnate, with 5-8 pairs of leaflets; glossy above, pubescent, the pubescence disappearing with age. Flowers subtended, 3 lobed, conspicuous, caducous brow bracts, fragrant, about 5 mm across, trimerous except for the ovary, arranged in dense, ferruginous, stellate-tomentose inflorescence; sepals 3, brown; petals 3, cream-yellow; stamens 6, white; disc 6 lobed, surrounding the 2-celled, glabrous ovary; inflorescence axis 10-42 cm long or longer, deeply grooved. Fruits ellipsoidal drupes rather variable in size, 4-12 x 3-6 cm, resembling olives; exocarp thin, pink, becoming dark blue to violet at maturity; pulp firm and thin. On the basis of long-term and extensive field observations in Nigeria, 2 varieties of D. edulis were distinguished: D. e. var. edulis and D. e. var. parvicarpa. Fruit of D. e. var. edulis is large, elongated, cylindrical, usually more than 5 x 2.5 cm. The fruit pulp is thick, about 3.5-9 mm. The tree often has whorled branching, the branchlets stout and ascending. The fruit of D. e. var. parvicarpa is small, rounded or more or less conical, usually less than 5 x 2.5 cm. The fruit pulp is thin, about 2-3.5 mm. Often the tree has bifurcate branching, with slender, drooping branchlets. The generic name is derived from the Greek word 'dakruon' (a tear) in reference to the resin droplets on bark surface of its members. The specific name ‘edulis’ means edible. |
| Diospyros mespiliformis | Diospyros mespiliformis is a tall, evergreen tree 15-50 m high, with dense, rounded and buttressed stem. Bark grey-black or black, smooth in young trees rough with small regular scales in older trees, pinkish when slashed. Young branchlets are green, tomentellous with pinkish-white hairs, glabrescent later. Crown is very branchy with dense foliage. Leaves alternate, shiny-green above, paler beneath, 4-7 cm long, 1.5-5.5 cm wide, oblong elliptic or oblolanceolate-elliptic, rarely lanceolate-elliptic, pubescent when young later becoming glabrescent or with few persistent, appressed hairs beneath, acute or subacuminate at the apex, cuneate or rounded at base with impressed midrib above, prominent beneath. Flowers pentamerous, white and fragrant. Male flowers sessile hairy and clustered on axillary peduncles. Female flowers solitary, shortly pedicellate and axillary with a 5-lobed calyx. Fruits usually globose, fleshy, up to 3 cm in diameter, greenish and pubescent when young, yellowish to orange yellow and glabrous when ripe, bell shaped, with persistent style and enlarged calyx and contain 4-6 seeds. Seeds, dark brown, bean-shaped shiny and glabrous. The generic name Diospyros means ‘divine pear’, and the specific name mespiliformis is derived from two words,‘mesos’ meaning half, and ‘pilos’, which is bullets. |
| Diospyros virginiana | Diospyros viginiana is a slow-growing deciduous tree; rarely exceeding 15 m in height but in optimum habitats may reach a height of 21-24 m and a diameter of 51-61 cm. It is usually upright or drooping with a rounded or conical crown. In forest stands the stem may be straight, tall, and slender. Stems may be clumped, either because seedlings develop in close proximity to one another or because they arise from suckers after a tree has been cut down. Leaves alternate, simple, oblong to oval, 10-15 cm long, pinnately-veined, margin entire, lustrous green above and paler or whitened and pubescent below. Flowers dioecious, greenish-white and inconspicuous, each tree having only staminate or pistillate flowers borne on shoots of the current year. The female flowers solitary, sessile and urn-shaped with a fragrant corolla with 4 or 5 thick recurved lobes, about 1.9 cm long. Male flowers in two or three-flowered cymes, tubular, 8-13 mm long. Fruit plum-like (spherical) berry, green before ripening, turning orange to black or dark red when ripe, up to 5 cm in diameter with leafy bracts on top, only on female trees. The fruit is very astringent and mouth numbing when green, but deliciously sweet and edible when fully ripe. Each berry usually contains one to eight flat, brown seeds about 13 mm long but is sometimes seedless. Twig slender, light brown to gray, maybe scabrous or pubescent; no true terminal bud and twig scar often very prominent, buds are dark red to black with 2 bud scales, triangular in shape, appressed; leaf scar has one, oval vascular bundle trace. Bark gray-brown when young with orange in fissures, later becomes much darker, breaking up into square scaly thick plates; similar to charcoal briquettes. The bark on older trunks is black and broken up into distinctive, regular square blocks. |
| Dobera glabra | Dobera glabra is an evergreen shrub or tree up to 8-10 m high. The smooth, green, greyish-brown to dark grey bark is fissured in rectangular patches; bark on younger wood is grey. Leaves opposite, olive-green, leathery, slightly fleshy and smooth. Flowers white, bisexual, in axillary and terminal panicles. Fruit greenish turning purple when mature, rough on the outside, shaped like a small egg, about 2 cm long and 1 cm wide, pointed at the end, with a white seed coated with a slimy red skin. The specific name, ‘glabra’, is Latin for ‘smooth’, ‘without hairs’, or ‘bald’. |
| Dovyalis caffra | Dovyalis caffra is a shrub or small evergreen tree, usually 3-5 m in height, but sometimes reaching 8 m. Bark grey, smooth on young branchlets but fissured and flaky to corky on old branches and stems. Young branches heavily armed with long (40-70 mm) spines, but stem with few spines. Crown much branched. Root system is not aggressive. Leaves simple, often in tight clusters or fascicles, on dwarf lateral branches; alternate on young shoots; dark green with a waxy lustre, with 3-5 prominent veins from the base on both sides, narrowly obovate to broadly obovate-elliptic, 2-5.5 x 0.5-3 cm; apex rounded, occasionally notched; base tapering to narrowly rounded; margin entire, slightly rolled under; petiole up to 5 mm long. Flowers small, inconspicuous, in dense clusters, creamish-green. Male and female flowers on separate trees. Male flowers 3 mm long in dense clusters of 5-10; female flowers solitary or in groups of up to 3 on stalks 4-10 mm long in leaf axils, usually on the dwarf lateral shoots, seen more as masses of stamens. Fruit almost spherical, up to 6 cm in diameter, fleshy, turning from green to yellow-orange with a velvety surface when mature, crowned with persistent styles containing seeds 10 mm long. About 12 hairy seeds in 2 circles are enclosed in the pulp; these distinguish the kei apple from the thorn pear fruit which is similar (the thorn pear fruit has only 1-3 seeds). The name ‘Dovyalis’ is based on the Greek word for ‘spear’ and ‘caffra’ comes from Kaffraria (Eastern Cape, South Africa). When not in flower or fruit, this species is sometimes confused with D. zeyheri. |
| Eriobotrya japonica | Eriobotrya japonica is an evergreen shrub or small tree 6-8 m high; bole usually rather short, 0.6-1 m long, surmounted by a dense, ovoid or globular crown; bark grey and shallowly fissured, on young branches it is pale brown and hairy. Leaves are somewhat crowded towards the end of the stout, woolly branchlets, large, alternate, subsessile, stiff, coriaceous, elliptic, lanceolate to obovate, lanceolate in outline, 21-32 cm in length, with remotely toothed to sharply dentate margins; dark, glossy, green above and rusty-tomentose below; base green, obtuse or narrowed into a very short, stout, woolly, stipulate petiole. Flowers fragrant, 1.2 cm broad, borne in woolly panicles, 10-20 cm long; calyx composed of 5 small, imbricate, acute teeth; corolla has 5 oblong, ovate-clawed petals, white in colour and delicate in texture; stamens 20; pistils 5, joined towards the base. Fruits borne in clusters, commonly round, oval or pyriform, 2.5-8 cm in length, pale yellow to orange, somewhat downy on the surface; skin about as thick as that of a peach, but slightly tougher; flesh firm and fleshy in some varieties, melting in others, the colour ranging from almost white to deep orange, juicy and with subacid flavour; seeds 4-10, brownish, oblong, 1-2 cm long. Many E. japonica cultivars exist. Based on origin, 2 groups are distinguished: the Chinese groups with large, pyriform, deep orange fruit, ripening mid-season to late, which can be kept for 1-2 weeks, and the Japanese group with small, slender, light-coloured fruit, maturing early and having a shorter shelf life. The generic name is derived from the Greek words ‘erion’ (wool) and ‘botrys’ (cluster), from the woolly appearance of the spiked inflorescence; the specific epithet means 'of Japan'. |
| Eucalyptus camaldulensis | Eucalyptus camaldulensis commonly grows to 20 m tall, occasionally reaching 50 m, with a trunk diameter of 1 (max. 2) m; in open formations has a short, thick bole and a large, spreading crown; in plantations has a clear bole of 20 m with an erect, lightly branched crown; bark smooth, white, grey, yellow-green, grey-green or pinkish grey, shedding in strips or irregular flakes; rough bark occupies the 1st 1-2 m of the trunk. Leaves grey-blue, alternate, drooping, 8-22 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, often curved or sickle shaped, tapering, short pointed at base. Inflorescence axillary, solitary, 7-11 flowered; flower buds white, globular-rostrate or ovoid-conical; operculum hemispherical, rostrate or conical, 4-6 x 3-6 mm, obtuse. Fruit very small capsules at the end of thin stalks, 5-8 mm, valves 4, containing minute seeds. The genus Eucalyptus was described and named in 1788 by the French botanist l’Héritier. The flowers of the various Eucalyptus species are protected by an operculum, hence the generic name, which is from the Greek words ‘eu’ (well) and ‘kalyptos’ (covered). The specific epithet honours Count Camaldoni in whose garden E. camaldulensis was planted in 1803. |
| Eucalyptus deglupta | Eucalyptus deglupta is a huge evergreen tree of up to 60 (max. 75) m tall; bole generally of good form, 50-70% of the tree height, up to 240 cm in diameter, sometimes with buttresses 3-4 m high; bark smooth, yellow, brown, and purple, but green after flaking; twigs 4-sided, often with 4 longitudinal wings. Juvenile leaves opposite, ovate to lanceolate; adult leaves opposite to subopposite, rarely alternate, shortly petiolate, held almost horizontal on branches, ovate to ovate-lanceolate or acuminate, thicker than juvenile leaves, 7.5-15 (max. 20) x 5-7.5 (max. 10) cm. Flowers 3-7 umbels in terminal or axillary panicles 5-20 x 5-18 cm; pedicels terete or slightly angular, about 5 mm long; young buds small, green with double opercula; developed buds pale green or cream, globular, apiculate, 0.2-0.4 x 0.2-0.5 mm, operculum hemispherical, apiculate and wider than long; flowers with many white to pale yellow stamens 2-10 mm long, strongly reflexed in the unopened bud; anther dehiscing by separate slits. Fruit pedicallate, hemispherical, with 3-4 valves, thin, deltoid, exserted to 2 mm, making the capsule appear globular, 3-5 x 3-5 mm, and disc very narrow; mature fruits brown to dark brown, containing 3-12 well-formed seeds per valve; seeds minute, brown, flattened, with a small terminal wing. The genus Eucalyptus was described and named in 1788 by the French botanist l’Héritier. The flowers of the various Eucalyptus species are protected by an operculum, hence the generic name, which comes from the Greek words ‘eu’ (well), and ‘calyptos’ (covered). |
| Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus | Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus is a large to very large evergreen tree, 40-55 (max. 60) m tall, with straight, massive trunk 0.6-2 m in diameter; narrow, irregular crown of large branches and drooping aromatic foliage; crown of open-grown trees broadly rounded or irregular with branches nearly to the ground; bark smoothish, mottled grey, brown, and greenish or bluish, peeling in long strips, at base becoming grey, rough and shaggy, thick and finely furrowed; root system deep and spreading. Leaves alternate, drooping on flattened, yellowish leafstalks of 1.5-4 cm, narrowly lance shaped, 10-30 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, mostly curved or sickle shaped, long-pointed at tip, short-pointed at base, not toothed on edges, hairless, thick, leathery, with fine, straight veins and vein inside margin, shiny, dark green on both surfaces, aromatic with an odour like that of camphor when crushed. Flowers 1 (rarely 2-3) at leaf base on very short, flattened stalk or none, more than 5 cm across the very numerous, spreading, white stamens about 12-15 mm long, with odour of camphor; buds top-shaped, 12-15 x 12-25 mm; base (hypanthium) 4 angled, very warty, whitish bloom, with 2 lids. Fruits or seed capsules single at leaf base, broadly top-shaped or rounded, 1.5-5 x 2-2.5 cm, 4-angled, warty, with whitish, broad, thick, flat or convex disc and 3-5 slits; seeds many and irregularly elliptical, 2-3 mm long, dull black; many small, sterile seeds. The genus Eucalyptus was described and named in 1788 by the French botanist l’Héritier. The flowers of the various Eucalyptus species are protected by an operculum, hence the generic name, which comes from the Greek words ‘eu’ (well), and ‘calyptos’ (covered). |
| Eucalyptus maculata | Eucalyptus maculata is an attractive, medium sized to very tall forest tree, usually attaining 35-45 m in height and 1-1.3 m dbh, with exceptionally large trees reaching 70 m and exceeding 3 m dbh. On poorer sites it may be 20-35 m in height and 0.7-1.2 m diameter. Distinctively straight trunk and a large crown, bark smooth, pale pink or blue-grey, thick, shed in patches which are usually elliptical, leaving straight depressions on the surface. Juvenile leaves broad, heart-shaped, glossy discolorous green, first opposite then alternate on long stalks, ovate, some peltate, setose becoming glabrous. Adult leaves narrow and slightly glossy, alternate, stalked, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate; lamina 12-21 cm long, 1-3 cm wide; lateral veins just visible, intramarginal vein up to 1 mm from margin; petiole angular, 15-25 mm long. Peduncle terete, 3-8 mm long; pedicels angular, 3-7 mm long. Buds ovoid; operculum hemispherical, apiculate, 4-5 mm long, 5-8 mm wide; hypanthium hemispherical, 5-8 mm long and wide. The inflorescence comprises of terminal corymbose panicles of 3-flowered (rarely 7) umbels, peduncles more or less terete, 3-8 mm long, pedicels usually angular, 3-7 mm long, buds ovoid, 6-10 x 4-6 mm, opercula hemi-spherical, apiculate or rostrate. Fruits pedicellate, ovoid or sometimes suburceolate, with a short neck, 10-14 mm long, 9-11 mm wide, woody, disc broad, descending; valves 3 or 4, deeply enclosed. The genus Eucalyptus was described and named in 1788 by the French botanist l’Héritier. The flowers of various Eucalyptus species are protected by an operculum, hence the generic name, which comes from the Greek words ‘eu’ (well) and ‘calyptos’ (covered). The specific epithet means spotted. |
| Eucalyptus nitens | Eucalyptus nitens is a tall forest tree, commonly 40-70 m in height and occasionally up to 90 m, with a diameter at breast height of 1-2 m or more; typically has a good shape and a straight bole, which may be 1/2 or 2/3 of the tree height; bark smooth throughout, greyish, decorticating in long ribbons, sometimes with a relatively thin basal stocking of rough bark for a few metres; saplings and young trees characteristically green barked. Leaves of seedlings and juvenile trees are opposite, sessile, amplexicaul, ovate, glaucous, bluish, discolourous; seedlings 4-10 x 2-4 cm, juveniles 8.5-17 x 4.5-8 cm; adult leaves alternate, petiolate, lanceolate to narrow-lanceolate, 13-24 x 1.5-2.5 cm, green, concolorous. Inflorescence simple, axillary, 7 flowered; peduncles angular to somewhat flattened; pedicles usually absent, occasionally very short; buds cylindrical or ovoid, often angular or ribbed, 6-7 x 3 mm; opercula conical. Fruits sessile, ovoid, often fairly ribbed, 4-7 x 4-6 mm, with a glossy surface; disk narrow, descending; valves 3 or 4, about rim level or slightly exserted. The genus Eucalyptus was described and named in 1788 by the French botanist l’Héritier. The flowers of the various Eucalyptus species are protected by an operculum, hence the generic name, which comes from the Greek words ‘eu’ (well), and ‘calyptos’ (covered). ‘Nitens’ is a Latin word for ‘shining’, ‘polished’ or ‘bright’, and refers to the leaves, buds, fruits and bark. The fruits in particular have a distinctive, glossy, varnished appearance. |
| Eugenia dombeyi | Eugenia dombeyi is a small, evergreen tree, 7-10(-20) m tall; crown narrow, compact; trunk short with grey bark, branches suberect. Leaves opposite, ovate to obovate-elliptic, 10-12 cm x 5-6 cm, leathery, glossy, minutely pitted on both surfaces, margin recurved; petiole 3-4 mm long; leaves persist for 2 years, buds large with velvety scales, young shoots rosy. Flowers solitary, axillary, 2.5 cm wide, white, slightly fragrant; pedicle 3 cm; sepals 4, 8 mm long, green; petals 4, 15 mm long, white; stamens about 100, white. Fruit a globose to oblate berry, up to 3-5 cm in diameter, with persistent sepals at apex, hanging on long, slender pedicel, bright-red, dark purple to nearly black, or white, juicy, soft, sweet. Seeds one to several, globose to angular, about 1 cm in diameter, hard, light brown to grey-green. Three varieties have been distinguished, based on little more than fruit colour: var iocarpus Berg (= var. dombeyi), fruits deep violet; var erythrocarpus Berg, fruit red; var. leucocarpus Berg, fruits white, tallest trees, less common. |
| Euonymus japonicus | Euonymus japonicus is a much branched, evergreen shrub or small tree up to 7 m tall; twigs green, smooth, often wrinkled when dry. Leaves lightly serrated, thick, dark green, opposite, 2.5-7 mm long, very waxy. Flowers inconspicuous, white clusters, each with 4 green petals 6-10 mm. Fruit capsule 4 celled, deep pink, exposing bright orange pulp on opening. E. japonicus can be distinguished from the spindle tree (E. europaeus) by its rounded, unlobed capsule. Aureus is a cultivar of E. japonicus whose leaves are yellow in the middle with green margins; the leaves of cultivar Albomarginatus are green in the middle and yellow on the margins. The generic name translates into 'good name' from the Greek 'eu'-good and 'onoma'-name , ironically referring to its poisonous properties. The specific epithet means of Japan. |
| Feijoa sellowiana | Feijoa sellowiana is a shrub or small tree, 3-6 m in height and very branchy. Trunk cylindrical, peeling off in small pieces. Bark pale grey; branches spreading, swollen at the nodes, white-hairy when young. Leaves evergreen, thick, leathery, opposite, short petioled, bluntly elliptical; 2-6 cm long and 1-3 cm wide; smooth, glossy on upper surface and finely veined, silvery underneath. Flowers conspicuous, 4 cm wide, bisexual, borne singly or in cluster, stamens long, erect purple or bright red, topped with large, round, yellow anthers; petals 4, oval, fleshy; white tinged with purple on the inside, 1-2 cm long; sepals 4, persistent. Fruits 5-8 cm long, 3-7 cm in diameter; variable in shape from round to elongated pear shape, with the persistent calyx segments adhering to the apex. Skin waxy, dull blue-green to blue or greyish green, sometimes with a red or orange blush; texture varies from smooth to rough and pebbly. Flesh thick, white, granular, watery; central pulp translucent, enclosing the seeds; sweet or subacid, suggesting a combination of pineapple and guava or pineapple and strawberry flavor, often with overtones of winter green or spearmint. The fruit emits a strong long-lasting perfume, even before it is fully ripe. There are usually 20-40, occasionally as many as 100, very small, oblong seeds hardly noticeable when the fruit is eaten. It is the best known of the 3 species in the genus which the German botanist, Ernst Berger, named after Don da Silva Feijoa, a botanist of San Sebastian, Spain. The specific name honors F. Sellow, a German who collected specimens in the province of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. |
| Ficus religiosa | Ficus religiosa is an evergreen or deciduous tree, 20 m tall and 1.5-2 m dbh, irregularly-shaped, with wide-spreading branches and without aerial roots from the branches. The trunk is regularly shaped, often with low buttresses. Bark is grey with brownish specks, smooth, exfoliating in irregular rounded flakes. Leaves alternate, spirally arranged and broadly ovate, glossy, coriaceous (leathery), dark green leaves, 10-18 by 7.5-10 cm, with unusual tail-like tips, pink when young, stipulate, base-cordate. Petioles is slender and 7.5-10 cm long. Galls on leaves. Flowers axillary sessile, unisexual. Figs in pairs, rounded, flat-topped green, to 1.5 cm across, axillary, sessile, smooth, ripening to purple with red dots, basal bracts 3 and broad. The specific epithet ‘religiosa’ alludes to the religious significance attached to this tree. The prince Siddhartha is said to have sat and meditated under this tree and there found enlightment from which time he became a Buddha. The tree is therefore sacred to Buddhists and is planted beside temples |
| Ficus thonningii | Ficus thonningii is an evergreen tree 6-21 m, with a rounded to spreading and dense crown. Sometimes epiphytic, often a strangler; trunk fluted or multistemmed. Bark on young branches hairy, with a stipular cap covering the growth tip, but smooth and grey on older branches and stems, lenticellate, often with aerial roots hanging down from branches; the whole plant exudes a copious, milky latex often turning pinkish. Leaves simple, glossy, dark green, thin and papery or slightly leathery, margin smooth, elliptic or obovate, sometimes rather elongated or slightly oblanceolate, grouped at ends of twigs, 3-20 x 1.5-10 cm, glabrous, puberulous or pubescent; with 6-12 pairs of upcurving main lateral veins; stalk rather slender, 1-7.5 cm; base cuneate or obtuse (sometimes subcordate); apex rounded or obtuse, sometimes shortly and bluntly acuminate. Stipules about 12 mm long, soon falling off. Figs in leaf axils, sometimes below the leaves, enclosing many small flowers, mostly hairy and borne in the leaf axils, sessile or on peduncles to 10 mm long, yellow or red, globose or ellipsoid, 7-14 mm in diameter, smooth or warted, glabrous or pubescent, basal bracts 2-4 mm long, persistent. The generic name is the classical Latin name for the cultivated fig derived from the Persian word ‘fica’, and the specific epithet is in honour of Danish plant collector Peter Thonning (1775-1848). |
| Garcinia gummi-gutta | Garcinia gummi-gutta is an evergreen, small or medium-sized dioecious, understorey tree, 5 –20 m tall, about 70 cm dbh, with a rounded crown and horizontal or drooping branches. The bark is dark and smooth. Leaves opposite, petiolate, dark green, shining, 13-18 by 4-8 cm, elliptic to obovate, glabrous; petiole 1.2-2.2 cm. Flowers in clusters of 4-20, are usually red, but some trees have yellow ones. Petals normally 4, each about 12 mm wide 11 mm long; anthers attached to a pistillode with a non-functional stigma. Female flowers occur singly or in clusters of up to 4. The stigmatic surface is normally enlarged, and there is no style. Pistillate flowers have rudimentary and non-functional staminodes. Neither male nor female flowers produce nectar. Fruit a green, ovoid berry, 5 cm in diameter, yellow or red when ripe, with 6-8 grooves. Seed 6-8, smooth, large, about 5 cm long and 2 cm wide surrounded by a succulent aril. |
| Garcinia hanburyi | An evergreen, small to medium-sized tree, up to 15 m tall, with short and straight trunk, up to 20 cm in diameter; bark grey, smooth, 4-6 mm thick, exuding a yellow gum-resin. Leaves opposite, leathery, elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 10-25 cm x 3-10 cm, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, shortly stalked. Flowers in clusters or solitary in the axils of fallen leaves, 4-merous, pale yellow and fragrant, unisexual or bisexual; male flowers somewhat smaller than female and bisexuals; sepals leathery, orbicular, 4-6 mm long, persistent; petals ovate, 6-7 mm long; stamens numerous and arranged on an elevated receptacle in male flowers, less numerous and reduced in female flowers; ovary superior, 4-loculed, with sessile stigma. Fruit a globose berry, 2-3 cm in diameter, smooth, with recurved sepals at the base and crowned by the persistent stigma, 1-4 seeded. Seeds 15-20 mm long, surrounded by a pulpy aril. The gum-resin from G. hanburyi is often called Siamese gamboge to distinguish it from the similar product from the bark of G. morella Desr., called Indian gamboge. The species are closely related, and G. hanburyi has been considered in the past as a variety of G. morella. |
| Garcinia livingstonei | Garcinia livingstonei is a shrub or small evergreen tree to 10 m; crown dense, spreading or conical; trunk short, often twisted, occasionally multi-stemmed. Bark reddish brown to dark grey, with shallow grooves or deeply fissured, ridged and scaly, exuding yellow or red resinous latex when cut. Leaves simple, in whorls of 3, stiff and leathery or brittle, variable in shape, sometimes with a slightly wavy edge; dark green and glossy above, dull and pale green below. Flowers white or pale to yellowish green, 6-14 mm diameter, borne in small groups in axils of older branches. Male and female flowers normally separate, but with some bisexual flowers. Fruits ovoid to round berries, 2.5-3.5 cm long and 2.5-3 cm broad; orange-yellow, reddish, or purple; 1-2 seeded. Seeds creamy brown. The generic name is after L. Garcin (1683-1751), a naturalist and a correspondent of Linnaeus. |
| Garcinia mangostana | The mangosteen is a small, evergreen tree, very slow-growing, erect with a pyramidal crown; attains 6-25 m in height, has dark-brown or nearly black, flaking bark, the inner bark containing yellow, gummy, bitter latex. Leaves opposite, short-stalked, ovate-oblong or elliptic, leathery and thick, dark-green, slightly glossy above, yellowish-green and dull beneath; 9-25 cm long, 4.5-10 cm wide, with conspicuous, pale midrib. New leaves rosy. Flowers 4-5 cm wide, fleshy, may be male or hermaphrodite on the same tree. The former are in clusters of 3-9 at the branch tips; there are 4 sepals and 4 ovate, thick, fleshy petals, green with red spots on the outside, yellowish-red inside. Stamens many, fertile and sterile. The hermaphrodite are borne singly or in pairs at the tips of young branchlets; their petals may be yellowish-green edged with red or mostly red, and are quickly shed. Fruit a subglobose berry, capped by the prominent calyx at the stem end, with 4-8 triangular, flat remnants of the stigma in a rosette at the apex, dark-purple to red-purple and smooth externally, 3.4-7.5 cm in diameter. The rind is 6-10 mm thick, red in cross-section, purplish-white on the inside; contains bitter yellow latex and a purple staining juice. There are 4-8 triangular segments of snow-white, juicy, soft flesh (actually the arils of the seeds). The fruit may be seedless or have 1-5 fully developed seeds. Seed ovoid-oblong, somewhat flattened, 2.5 cm long and 1.6 cm wide that cling to the flesh. Flesh slightly acid, mild to distinctly acid in flavor, acclaimed to be exquisitely luscious and delicious. The generic name is after L. Garcin (1683-1751), a naturalist and a correspondent of Linnaeus. |
| Garcinia quaesita | Garcinia quaesita is a medium to large evergreen lactiferous tree to 20 m high and up to 60 cm dbh. The crown is round with drooping branches. The bark is blackish and rough, cracked and peeling to exude dark-yellow latex. Leaves dark green, 5-12.5 by 2.5-7.5 cm, oblanceolate to subovate Flowers white, on axil of upper leaves; male flowers clustered and female solitary. Fruit a small yellow, purple or reddish globose, with 7-13 very deep vertical grooves. Flesh is mild to distinctly acid and is acclaimed to be exquisitely luscious and delicious. Seeds 6-8, ovoid-oblong, 2.5 cm long and 1.6 cm wide, clinging to the flesh The generic name is after L. Garcin (1683-1751), a naturalist and a correspondent of Linnaeus. |
| Gevuina avellana | Gevuina avellana is a medium-sized evergreen tree, 10-12 m, rarely over 15 m high; canopy compact but much more open under shady conditions; branches stout, pubescent; young shoots covered in dense reddish hair. Leaves large, bipinnate, leaflets glossy, coriaceous dark green with serrated margins. Inflorescence racemose, flowers snow- to ivory-white, borne on the outside of the canopy in pairs; tepals 4, fused into a single structure with stamens curving back at anthesis to reveal the simple style and ovary. Fruit a globose, woody drupe derived from an indehiscent follicle; 1.2-2.3 cm diameter, coral-red when mature then brown or black. Seed 1, globular with smooth, tough shell. Gevuina is a monospecific genus restricted to the southern Sub Antarctic forests of South America. The specific epithet means hazel or nut-brown. |
| Gnetum africanum | Gnetum africanum is a dioecious forest perrenial liana up to 10 m long but sometimes longer; branches somewhat thickened at the nodes, glabrous. Leaves decussately opposite, sometimes in whorls of 3, simple, ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, more rarely lanceolate, 5-13 cm long, 2- 5 cm broad, attenuate at base, abruptly acuminate, obtuse or minutely apiculate, entire, thick-papery, glabrous, pale green above, paler beneath, with 3-6 pairs of strongly curved lateral veins looped near the margin; stipules absent; petiole up to 1 cm long. Inflorescence an unbranched catkin, axillary or terminal on a short branch, solitary but male inflorescences at apex of branches often in groups of 3, up to 8 cm long, jointed, peduncle 1-1.5 cm long, with a pair of scale-like, triangular bracts; male inflorescence with slender internodes and whorls of flowers at nodes; female inflorescence with slightly turbinate internodes and 2-3 flowers at each node. Flowers small, c. 2 mm long, with moniliform hairs at base and an envelope; male flowers with a tubular envelope and exserted staminal column bearing 2 anthers; female flowers with cupular envelope and naked, sessile ovule. Seed resembling a drupe, ellipsoid, 10-15 mm × 4-8 mm, apiculate, enclosed in the fleshy envelope, orange-red when ripe, with copious endosperm. This lianoid species lacks fibre-tracheids characteristic of G. gnemon. However, tori are clearly present in tracheary elements of this species. In Africa, there are only two species, G.africanum and G. buchholzianum. The specific epithet africanum refers to its African origin. The plant is threatened with disappearance because of intensive gathering and cultural practices which are destroying the forests which support these plants. Possible introduction into farm systems is a step in the right direction in conserving this plant. |
| Harungana madagascariensis | Harungana madagascariensis is a small to medium sized bushy tree 4-7 m in height, sometimes reaching 10-25 m; it is much branched with a cylindrical trunk. Crown is golden-green, deep and spreading with fine almost whorled branches. Bole is often rather angular and forked. Bark greyish or red-brown rather rough and scaly, frequently vertically fissured, with very small vertically arranged scales which flake off easily; slash bright orange, thin, rather wet and turgid, but will peel off in long strips, and when cut, brilliant, almost florescent orange latex flows abundantly and by it, the tree can be recognized immediately. This orange paint-like sap exudes if leaves are snapped off or if branches are broken. Most parts of the tree are covered with fine stellate hairs. Leaves opposite, simple, ovate or ovate elliptic, 6-20 x 3-10 cm, glossy, dark green above with prominent veining, the under surface with dense rusty hairs which may be partially lost by maturity but usually persist, and rather numerous lateral nerves, which are prominent beneath; young leaves at the ends of branches are distinctive and remain tightly pressed together until quite large, the brown lower surfaces quite characteristic; apex tapering; base broadly tapering to rounded; margin entire; petiole 1.5-3 cm long. Flowers whitish or cream, about 5 mm in diameter, sweetly almond scented, in dense many-flowered flat terminal heads (corymbose panicles), 8-20 cm in diameter, the stalks and calyx covered with short rusty hairs, bisexual; 5-merous; sepals glandular; petals with hairs on the inside and black gland dots; stamens in 5 clusters, each cluster made up of a few stamens joined for most of their length, with a sterile cluster, or a facsiclode between each fertile cluster; ovary 5-chambered. Fruits berry-like (drupe), 2-4 mm in diameter, greenish-orange becoming red when mature, in heavy, massed, terminal heads up to 25-30 cm in diameter, rather dry, with a crustaceous pericarp enclosing the 5 pyrenes, 2-4 seeded. |
| Hopea odorata | Hopea odorata is a medium-sized to large evergreen tree with a large crown growing to 45 m tall, bole straight, cylindrical, branchless to 25 m, with diameter of up to 4.5 m or more and prominent buttresses, bark surface scaly, grey to dark brown, longitudinally furrowed, yellow or reddish inside. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, 7-14 by 3-7 cm, falcate, base broadly cuneate, venation scalariform, midrib applanate to slightly channeled above, glabrous on both surfaces, petiole 2 cm long, slender. Flowers small, sweet scented, yellowish-white, very shortly pedicelled, in one-sided racemes, stamens 15, anthers narrowly ellipsoid, ovary ovoid, punctate or glabrous. Fruit small, ovoid, wings oblanceolate, rounded, 3-4 cm long, finely veined lengthwise. The specific epithet means odour and refers to the sweet smell of the flowers. |
| Illicium verum | Illicium verum is an evergreen medium sized tree, 8-15 (-20) m tall and up to 30 cm dbh with a straight rounded trunk and green, glabrous branchlets. The bark is white to bright grey. Leaves 6-12 cm long, alternate, simple, leathery, often clustered 3-4 together at the end of branches Flowers large, bisexual, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, white-pink to red or greenish-yellow, axillary and solitary. Fruit capsule-like, aggregate fruit made up of 6-8 or rarely up to 12-13 boat-shaped, rather woody follicles with a straight beak. Each follicle contains one seed Seed shiny brown or reddish with high oil content and anise-like smell. The genus name is derived from Latin ‘illicere’ (allure), probably because of the sweet and attractive fragrance. |
| Inga vera | Inga vera is a medium-sized evergreen tree 12-18 m tall, with trunk 30-60 cm in diameter (sometimes to 20 m tall and 1 m in diameter) with a widely spreading crown of long branches and thin foliage. Bark grey-brown, fairly smooth but becoming finely fissured; inner bark pinkish to brown. Twigs brown, often zigzag, with dense brown hairs when young. Leaves alternate in 2 rows, pinnately compound, 18-30 cm long; axis 6-18 cm long, brown, hairy, with a green wing 6-10 mm broad. Leaflets 3-7 pairs, slightly drooping, stalkless, with a tiny round gland between each pair, elliptical to oblong, 5-15 x 2.5-7 cm, larger from base towards the end, long pointed at tip and short pointed at base, not toothed on edges, thin and slightly convex, slightly hairy, especially on veins, upper surface green, underneath pale green. Flower clusters 1-4 on base of leaf or at end of twig, consisting of several stalkless flowers crowded near end of hairy stalk, only 1 or 2 open daily. Each flower 6-7.5 x 7.5-9 cm, with many threadlike white stamens. Flower fully expanded at dawn but soon wilts in daylight. Calyx tubular, cylindrical, 5-toothed, corolla a narrow cylindrical tube about 15 mm long with 5 short spreading lobes, greenish-yellow with dense brown hairs; numerous stamens united into a tube inside the corolla; pistil with long narrow ovary and very slender style. Pods nearly cylindrical, narrow, 10-20 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, 4-ribbed, with 2 long grooves, slightly curved, densely hairy, brown, with calyx at base, not splitting open. Seeds few, beanlike, black, in white, sweetish, edible pulp. The name ‘inga’ is derived from its name with the Tupi Indians of South America. The specific Latin name, ‘vera’, means ‘true’ or ‘genuine’. Based on material collected in Jamaica, this species was the first to be named and the one upon which the classification of the rest of this large genus was based. |
| Khaya ivorensis | Khaya ivorensis is a very large tree that attains a height of 40-50 m and a dbh of up to 2 m. Bole straight, unbranched up to 30 m above the ground with well-developed plank buttresses; bark thick and coarse, reddish-brown, and with a bitter taste. The foliage of the widely spreading crown is dark. Leaves are evenly pinnate, with 4-7 pairs of leaflets, 7.5-14 cm long by 2.5-4.5 cm broad, oblong, abruptly long-acuminate at the apex (the tip very long and conspicuous in seedling and saplings); stalk of leaflets about 4 mm long. Flowers very many, small, white, in panicles at the ends of branchlets. Fruits rounded woody capsules usually with 5 valves, each valve 7.5-8.5 cm long and 2.5-4 mm thick, thinner than those of K. grandifoliola; when fully ripe, the valves open to release about 15 flat-winged seeds, each about 2.5 cm in diameter and narrowly winged all round. |
| Kigelia pinnata | Kigelia africana is a medium to large tree, up to 25 m in height, with a dense rounded crown; bark grey, generally smooth in large specimens, flaking in thin, round patches. Leaves opposite, crowded near the ends of branches, compound, with 3-5 pairs of leaflets plus a terminal leaflet; leaflets oblong, up to 6 x 10 cm, leathery, roughly hairy on both surfaces, rather yellowish-green above, paler green below, apex broadly tapering to rounded; base square, asymmetric in the lateral leaflets, symmetric in the terminal leaflet; margin entire, sometimes obscurely toothed, wavy; the lower leaflets shortly petiolulate, the terminal pair without petiolules; petiole up to 15 cm long. Flowers striking, dark maroon with heavy yellow veining on the outside, cup shaped, asymmetric, up to 15 cm across the mouth, unpleasant smelling; in 6- to 12-flowered, lax, pendulous sprays up to 90 cm long. Calyx shortly tubular with 2-5 ribbed lobes; corolla widely cup shaped with 5 broad spreading lobes; stamens 4, slightly protruding beyond the mouth of the corolla tube; ovary 1-chambered. Fruit very unusual, sausage shaped, up to 1 m x 18 cm, greyish-brown, heavily dotted with lenticels, indehiscent, heavy, weighing up to 12 kg, containing a fibrous pulp in which are embedded many seeds. The common name ‘sausage tree’ is derived from the cylindrical shape of the fruit. Kigelia is the latinized version of a Mozambique name and ‘africana’ means simply ‘from Africa’. |
| Leucaena leucocephala | Leucaena leucocephala is a small, variably shrubby and highly branched (ssp. leucocephala) to medium-sized tree with a short, clear bole to 5 m, upright angular branching and a narrow open crown (ssp. glabrata), 3-15 (max. 20) m tall, bole diameter 10-50 cm. Bark on young branches smooth, grey-brown, slash salmon pink, darker grey-brown and rougher with shallow, rusty orange-brown vertical fissures and deep red inner bark on older branches and bole. This evergreen plant is deep rooted. It often has a combination of flowers, immature and mature pods all present on the tree at the same time. Leaves with (min. 4) 6-9 pairs pinnae; pinnular rachis 5-10.2 cm long, leaflets 9-16 (max. 21) mm long, 2-4.5 mm wide, 13-21 pairs per pinna, slightly asymmetric, linear-oblong to weakly elliptic, acute at tip, rounded to obtuse at base, glabrous except on margins. Leaves and leaflets fold up with heat, cold or lack of water. Flower heads 12-21 mm in diameter, 100-180 flowers per head, in groups of 2-6 in leaf axils, arising on actively growing young shoots, flowers white or pale cream-white. Pods (min. 9) 11-19 cm long, (min. 13) 15-21 mm wide, (min. 3) 5-20 (max. 45) per flower head, linear-oblong, acute or rounded at apex, flat, 8-18 seeded, mid- to orange-brown, glabrous and slightly lustrous or densely covered in white velvety hairs, papery, opening along both margins. Seeds hard, dark brown with a hard, shining testa, 6.7-9.6 mm long, 4-6.3 mm wide, aligned transversely in pod. The specific name ‘leucocephala’ comes from ‘leu’, meaning white, and ‘cephala’, meaning head, referring to the flowers. There are 3 recognized subspecies: ssp. leucocephala, ssp. glabrata (Rose) S. Zárate, and ssp. ixtahuacana C. E. Hughes. |
| Lovoa swynnertonii | Lovoa swynnertonii is an evergreen tree up to 50 m in height. Bole fluted or slightly buttressed at the base to a height of 2 m, long and straight, sometimes 30 m to first branch, slender, up to 2 m in diameter. Bark brown-grey to black, fairly smooth, flaking in round pieces 2-30 cm across. Leaves up to 30 cm long, pubescent when young; leaflets usually 10-16, oblong-elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, slightly falcate, up to 10 x 4 cm, apex shortly acuminate, base cuneate; lateral nerves in 16 closely spaced pairs; petiole flattened. Inflorescence an axillary panicle up to 10 cm long; calyx 0.1 cm long, puberulous especially on the margins. Petals 0.25-0.3 cm long. Capsule up to 5.5 x 2 cm; valves brownish black, with scattered, minute, white lenticels, separating first from the apex and remaining attached for some time before falling. Seeds, including wing, up to 4.5 x 1 cm. The generic name Lovoa is after River Lovoi in Congo. |
| Macadamia integrifolia | Macadamia integrifolia is a large, spreading, evergreen tree attaining a height of 18 m and a crown of 15 m. Leaves in whorls of 3, oblong to oblanceolate, 10-30 x 2-4 cm, glabrous, coriaceous, irregularly spiny-dentate when young, entire in later stages; petiole 5-15 mm long; 3 buds arranged longitudinally in the axil of each leaf usually only the top bud shoots out, making a sharply acute angle with the trunk. Racemes axillary on mature new growth or on leafless older shoot, pendulous, 10-30 cm long, with 100-500 flowers; flowers in groups of 2-4, about 12 mm long, creamy-white; pedicles 3-4 mm long; perianth tubular with 4 petaloid sepals. Fruit a globose follicle, 2.5-4 cm in diameter; pericarp fibrous, about 3 mm thick. Seed (nut) usually 1, globular, with a smooth, hard, thick (2-5 mm) testa enclosing the edible kernel. The genus is named after J. Macadam (1827-1865), secretary of the philosophical Institute of Victoria. The specific name integrifolia is from the Latin integri-‘entire’ and folium-‘a leaf’ in allusion to the grouping of leaves in whorls of four. |
| Malpighia glabra | Malpighia glabra is a shrub or small evergreen tree, 2-3(-6) m tall, with spreading, more or less drooping branches on a short trunk. Leaves opposite, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, 2-8 cm x 1-4 cm, entire or undulating, dark green and glossy above, petiole short. Inflorescences sessile or short-peduncled axillary cymes with 3-5 flowers; flowers bisexual, 1-2 cm in diameter, pinkish to reddish; calyx with 6-10 large sessile glands; petals 5, fringed, slender-clawed; stamens 10, filaments united below. Fruit a bright-red, juicy drupe, depressed-ovoid, 1-3 cm in diameter and weighing 3-5 g, usually in pairs or threes, obscurely 3-lobed; skin thin, flesh soft, orange, acid to subacid. Seeds 3, triangular, ridged. In Florida, 'Florida Sweet' is a high-yielding cultivar. A distinction is sometimes made in nomenclature between wild and cultivated (improved) plants, the latter being called M. punicifolia L. It is now, however, generally accepted that both taxa belong to M. glabra. M. coccigera L. and M. urens L. are incidentally cultivated in South-East Asia for the same purposes as M. glabra. |
| Mammea americana | Mammea americana is an evergreen tree, 18-21 m tall, with a short trunk that may attain 0.9-1.2 m in diameter, and ascending, densely foliaged branches forming an erect, oval head. Leaves glossy, opposite, leathery, dark-green, broadly elliptic leaves, up to 20 cm long and 10 cm wide. Flowers fragrant, white, 2.5-4 cm wide when fully open, may be staminate, pistilate or polygamous; borne singly or in clusters of 2 or 3 on axils of young branches. Male, female and hermaphrodite together or on separate trees. Fruit nearly round or somewhat irregular, with a short, thick stem and a more or less distinct tip or merely a bristle-like floral remnant at the apex, ranges from 10-20 cm in diameter, is heavy (0.5-2 kg) and hard until fully ripe when it softens slightly. The skin is light brown or greyish-brown with small, scattered, warty or scurfy areas, leathery, about 3 mm thick and bitter. Beneath it, a thin, dry, whitish membrane, astringent and often bitter, adheres to the flesh. The latter is light or golden-yellow to orange, non-fibrous, varies from firm and crisp and sometimes dry to tender, melting and juicy. It is more or less free from the seed though bits of the seed covering, which may be bitter, usually adhere to the immediately surrounding wall of flesh. The ripe flesh is appetizingly fragrant and, in the best varieties, pleasantly sub acid, resembling the apricot or red raspberry in flavor. Fruits of poor quality may be too sour or mawkishly sweet. Small fruits are usually single-seeded; larger fruits may have 2, 3 or 4 seeds. Seed russet-brown, rough, ovoid or ellipsoid and about 6.25 cm long. The juice of the seed leaves an indelible stain. The generic name is from a West Indian name, ‘mammey’ for a member of the genus. The specific epithet means ‘of American origin’. |
| Mangifera indica | Mangifera indica is a large evergreen tree to 20 m tall with a dark green, umbrella-shaped crown. Trunk stout, 90 cm in diameter; bark brown, smoothish, with many thin fissures; thick, becoming darker, rough and scaly or furrowed; branchlets rather stout, pale green and hairless. Inner bark light brown and bitter. A whitish latex exudes from cut twigs and a resin from cuts in the trunk. Leaves alternate, simple, leathery, oblong-lanceolate, 16-30 x 3-7 cm, on flowering branches, up to 50 cm on sterile branches, curved upward from the midrib and sometimes with edges a little wavy. Young leaves red, aging to shiny dark green above, lighter below, with yellow or white venation; petioles 4.5 cm long, striate and swollen at the base. Inflorescence 16 cm or more in length, a much-branched panicle bearing many very small (4 mm) greenish-white or pinkish flowers. Flowers radially symmetrical, usually have 5 spreading petals, 3-5 mm long, 1-1.5 mm broad, streaked with red, imbricate, with the median petal prolonged like a crest at the base, finely hairy and fragrant, partly male and partly bisexual; stalk short; 5 stamens, 1 fertile, the other 4 shorter and sterile, borne in a disc. The flower has a conspicuous 5-lobed disc between the petals and stamens. Calyx yellow-green, very short, deeply 5-lobed; 5 sepals, each 2-2.5 mm long x 1-1.5 mm broad, green with whitish margin, or yellowish-green, hairy outside. Fruit an irregularly egg-shaped and slightly compressed fleshy drupe, 8-12 (max. 30) cm long, attached at the broadest end on a pendulous stalk. The skin smooth, greenish-yellow, sometimes tinged with red. The underlying yellow-orange flesh varies in quality from soft, sweet, juicy and fibre-free in high-quality selected (clonal) varieties to turpentine flavoured and fibrous in wild seedlings. The single, compressed-ovoid seed is encased in the white fibrous inner layer of the fruit. The generic name is derived from ‘mango’, the Indian name for the fruit, and the Latin ‘fero’ (‘I bear’). |
| Manilkara zapota | The sapodilla is a large, evergreen, forest tree more than 30 m in height and with a diameter up to 1.5 m; under cultivation it varies between 9 and 15 m, depending on location, and generally does not exceed 50 cm in diameter. It produces a dense crown and a characteristic branching system (sympodial), in which the young branches are arranged horizontally. Bole cylindrical and long, especially in forest-grown individuals; bark dark brown and deeply fissured, forming small rectangular pieces. The tree has an extensive root system. Leaves spirally arranged and clustered at the shoot tips, simple, elliptic or oblong, apex obtuse to shortly acuminate; coriaceous, shining, glabrous when mature. Secondary veins make a wide angle with the midrib. Flowers greenish, solitary, cyathiform or campanulate, with a brown pubescent peduncle; 6 sepals, 6 corolla lobes. Fruit an ovoid to globular berry with a rough brown skin, containing 1-12 shining, brown or black seeds (frequently 5), surrounded by a brownish, sweet, juicy, scented flesh. ‘Manilkara’ is a common name for a member of the genus in Malabar. The common name ‘sapodilla’, by which the fruit is known, is taken from the Spanish ‘zapotillo’ meaning ‘small zapote’. |
| Markhamia lutea | Markhamia lutea is an upright evergreen tree 10-15 m high, with a narrow, irregular crown and long taproot. Bark light brown with fine vertical fissures. Leaves compound, often in bunches, thin and wavy, each leaflet up to 10 cm, wider at the tip, often with round outgrowths at the base. Flower buds yellow-green and furry, splitting down 1 side as flower emerges. Flowers bright yellow, in showy terminal clusters, each trumpet shaped, to 6 cm long, with 5 frilly lobes, the throat striped with orange-red. Fruit very long, thin, brown capsules, to 75 cm in length, hanging in clusters and tending to spiral, splitting on the tree to release abundant seed with transparent wings, 2.5 cm long and yellow-whitish when mature. The genus was named after Sir Clement Markham, who introduced the famous quinine-yielding cinchona into India. The specific name, ‘lutea’, is Latin for golden-yellow. |
| Mesua ferrea | Mesua ferrea is a medium-sized or fairly large evergreen tree up to 36 m tall. Bole cylindrical to poorly shaped, up to 95 cm in diameter, often fluted at base. Bark surface is smooth to adherent scaly, sometimes somewhat dippled, ochrous-brown revealing a bright orange layer below. Leaves opposite, simple and entire, usually elliptical to narrowly elliptical, glabrous or occasionally glaucous. Leaves shiny with numerous secondary veins, looping, running parallel nearly to the margin, frequently with equally prominent reticulating tertiary veins. Sometimes with more or less persistent stipule-like interpetiolar modified leaves. Flowers terminal or axillary, bisexual, solitary or in an up to 9-flowered open panicle, pedicel with small paired bracts. Sepals 4 decussate, sub-orbicular, persistent and variously enlarged and thickened in fruit. Petals 4, white or pink. Stamens numerous, free or connate only at the base, ovary superior (1-2 celled) each cell with 1-2 axillary ovules. Style slender with a peltate to 4-lobed stigma. Fruit a capsule, usually globose, often beaked, thinly woody, usually dehiscing with 2(-4) valves before falling, often exuding resinous droplets. One fruit contains 1-4 seeds. The generic name is after J. Mesue (777-857) and the specific epithet is from Latin meaning ‘belonging to iron’, in reference to its famed and very hard, durable timber. |
| Morinda citrifolia | Morinda citrifolia is an evergreen shrub or small crooked tree with a conical crown, 3-8(-10) m tall, with a deep taproot; bark greyish or yellowish-brown, shallowly fissured, glabrous; branchlets quandrangular. Leaves opposite and simple, elliptic-lanceolate, (10-)15-50 cm x 5-17 cm, entire, acute to shortly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, pinnately nerved, glabrous; petioles 0.5-2.5 cm long; stipules variable in size and shape, broadly triangular. Inflorescences globose heads, 1-4 cm long peeduncled, in axils of stipules opposite normally developed leaves; flowers bisexual, fragrant; corolla funnel-shaped, up to 1.5 cm long, white; stamens inserted on the mouth of the corolla; stigma bilobed. Fruit an ovoid syncarp of red-brown, pyramidal, 2-seeded drupes, 3-10 cm x 2-3 cm, yellow-white. M. citrifolia is sometimes subdivided into two varieties: var. citrifolia and var. bracteata (Roxb.) Hook.f. The latter has calyx-limbs with 12 leaflike, linear-lanceolate lobes ca. 1-1.5 cm long; the stem is straighter and the leaves are smaller than var. citrifolia. |
| Musanga cecropioides | Musanga cecropioides is an evergreen straight stemmed tree up to 18 m tall. The tree’s crown is umbrella-like, with very stout and pithy branchlets producing no latex. Stilt roots thin and unbranched when young, low and massive when older. Bark smooth and grey, slash pinkish or often greenish, thin, very soft, pulpy-granular, brownish on exposure. Short spines are sometimes found on the trunk. Large stipular sheaths enclose the bud. Leaves digitately divided into 12-15 spreading entire, narrow, shortly acuminate segments, up to 45 cm long and 10 cm broad, covered with greyish indumentum beneath; lateral nerves numerous, very conspicuous beneath; stipules large, conate, 15-20 cm long, densely pubescent. Male trees are sympodial in growth, producing leaf opposed (terminal) panicle like inflorescence of small heads on new wood, each flower with joined sepals round a single stamen and accompanied by 2 glands. Male flowers in numerous small round heads about 4 mm in diameter, female inflorescence short and club-like, about 2 cm long on a peduncle up to 12 cm long, each flower with a fused calyx, a pistil with a basal ovule and a single style and a pair of glands which secrete substances attractive to ants. Fruit yellowish green (later brownish), succulent, up to 8 cm and containing numerous achenes. The generic epithet is derived from the Congolese name of the tree. Some authors place the genera Musanga and Myrianthus in the family Cecropiaceae. |
| Nephelium lappaceum | Nephelium lappaceum is an evergreen tree about 10-12 m tall; principal trunk is erect with an open crown of large branches; bark is slightly rugose, greyish or red. Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound without an end-leaflet. On the lower surface of each leaflet are the domatia, small crater-like hills located in the axils between the mid and secondary veins. The function of the domatia is unknown. Inflorescence pseudo-terminal to usually terminal; flowers either male (only stamens well developed; trees dioecious) or hermaphrodite (trees monoecious), the latter either effectively female (stamens small, anther not dehiscing) or male (stigma not opening), actinomorphic, whitish, yellowish or greenish; sepals 4-5(7), nearly free to more than halfway connate, 0.7-2.1 mm long; petals usually absent, sometimes up to 4 reduced ones, not exceeding 1.6 mm; disk complete, hairy or glabrous. Fruit an ellipsoid to subglobular schizocarp, up to 7 x 5 cm, weighing 20-95 g, usually consisting of only 1 nutlet, yellowish to purplish-red, hardly stalked, often finally dehiscing (at least the apical part), glabrous, usually densely set with filiform, curved, 0.5-2 cm long appendages; wall coriaceous, up to 2.5 mm thick. Seed covered by a usually thick, juicy, white to yellow, translucent sarcotesta. The specific name stems from the Latin word ‘lappaceus’ meaning ‘bur-like’ and refers to the fruit appendages. The word rambutan is derived from the Malay word ‘hair,’ which describes the numerous, characterizing, long, soft, red or red and green coloured spine-like protuberances (spinterns) on the surface of the fruit. |
| Olea capensis | Olea capensis is often a bushy shrub or a small to medium sized tree up to 10 m in height, but it may be much larger, occasionally reaching 40 m; occurring in bush, littoral scrub and evergreen forest. Bark: light grey, becoming dark grey and vertically fissured with age; a characteristic blackish gum is exuded from bark wounds. Leaves lanceolate-oblong to almost circular, 3-10 x 1.5-5 cm, light to dark green and glossy above, rather paler green below, although sometimes almost unicoloured, occasionally purplish-tinged, without hairs or scales; apex broadly tapering to almost rounded; base tapering; margin entire, thickened and often very wavy; petiole often purplish, 0.3-1.7 cm long. The flowers are small, white or cream, sweetly scented, in many flowered axillary or terminal heads, 3-15 cm long. Fruit ovoid, fleshy, up to 2 x 1 cm, when ripe they are somewhat succulent purplish drupes. This species has been divided into 3 subspecies: ssp. macrocarpa, fruits oblong to elliptic, up to 2 x 1 cm; flowers in lax heads. Ssp. capensis, fruits almost spherical to oblong elliptic, up to 1 cm long; flowers in dense heads and leaves very variable, apex often rounded; branchlets grey to greyish-brown. Ssp. enervis, leaves usually broadly elliptic, apex tapering; branchlets grey to whitish. |
| Pachystela msolo | Pachystela msolo is a medium or tall evergreen tree with many branches; it grows to 20-50 m high, with a dense crown and a deeply fluted and pillared bole to about 3 m. Leaves alternate, medium to large, 8-35 x 3-14 cm (rarely larger), dark green, coriaceous, glabrous and shining on upper surfaces; underside slightly silvery, hairy or glaucous, with prominent venation; leaf shape obovate-oblong, 10-16 lateral nerves on each side of the leaf; leaf stalks short, 3-10 mm long. Flowers small, greenish-white, fragrant, clustered below the leaves on young branchlets and older branches; pedicels short, usually 3-6 mm long. Fruits are small, green, becoming a dull yellow with ripening; subglobose berries, about 3 x 2.5 cm, and beaked; pulp juicy; seeds ellipsoid, slightly flattened, up to 1.8 cm long; scar is prominent, lateral and occupying over half of surface. |
| Parinari curatellifolia | Parinari curatellifolia is a large, evergreen, spreading tree up to 20 m tall with a single bare stem and a dense, roundish to mushroom-shaped crown; bark dark grey and rough; young shoots densely covered with yellow woolly hairs. Leaves alternate, simple, elliptic to oblong, 3-8 x 2-4 cm, leathery, dark green on top, finely velvety when young but losing these hairs later, densely hairy and grey to yellow underside; apex broadly tapering, often notched; base square; margin entire; petiole short. Flowers small, white and sweet scented, in short, branched heads or panicles, 4-6 cm in diameter, in leaf axils; stalks and calyces densely covered with yellowish, woolly hairs; bisexual; sepals 5; petals 5; stamens 7 or more, joined at the base in a short ring inserted in the mouth of the receptacle; ovary 2 chambered. Fruit oval to round, up to 5 x 3.5 cm, russet-yellow to greyish, scaly and pitted, becoming orange-yellow when ripe. Parinari is the vernacular name for a Brazilian species; the specific name means ‘with leaves like those of Curatella’, a West Indian and South American genus belonging to the Dilleniaceae family; often called the hissing tree because the bark makes a sort of hissing noise when cut with an axe. |
| Persea americana | Persea americana is a medium to large tree, 9-20 m in height. The avocado is classified as an evergreen, although some varieties lose their leaves for a short time before flowering. The tree canopy ranges from low, dense and symmetrical to upright and asymmetrical. Leaves are 7-41 cm in length and variable in shape (elliptic, oval, lanceolate). They are often pubescent and reddish when young, becoming smooth, leathery, and dark green when mature. Flowers are yellowish green, and 1-1.3 cm in diameter. The many-flowered inflorescences are borne in a pseudo-terminal position. The central axis of the inflorescence terminates in a shoot. The fruit is a berry, consisting of a single large seed, surrounded by a buttery pulp. It contains 3-30% oil (Florida varieties range from 3-15%). The skin is variable in thickness and texture. Fruit colour at maturity is green, black, purple or reddish, depending on variety. Fruit shape ranges from spherical to pyriform, and weigh up to 2.3 kg. |
| Piliostigma malabaricum | Piliostigma malabaricum is an evergreen or nearly evergreen tree 4-17 m tall with a short often gnarled bole. Trunk diameter is usually up to 50 cm, bark surface is rather fissured and peels off in long strips, yellowish-brown and chequered. Leaves alternate, simple, 3.5-12 cm x 5-16 cm, ovate to rotund, bi-fid up to one fourth of their length with a broad sinus and broadly rounded lobes glabrous and green above, hairy and dull glaucous below. Stipules linear, caducous. Flowers in compound densely-flowered, racemes, clavate in bud, 2-5 cm, pedicels long 1 -2 cm, Calyx regularly 5-fid to near its base, 15-18 mm long densely short-hairy. Petals 1 -2 cm, oblong-obovate corrugate, dorsally pubescent and pale yellow-white. Male flowers with 10 stamens, female flowers with 10 minute staminodes, ovary superior, densely hairy on free stalk and with a peltate stigma. Fruit a brown indehiscent pod, 17-35 cm x 2-2.5 cm; borne on a long stalk, linear in shape (but often curved or beaked), with a veined and rather thick pericarp. Seeds 10-30, embedded in pulp. The generic epithet Piliostigma, means cap-like stigma. The specific epithet malabaricum refers to a locality in India. |
| Pinus caribaea | Pinus caribaea is a fine tree to 20-30 m tall, often 35 m, with a diameter of 50-80 cm and occasionally up to 1 m; trunk generally straight and well formed; lower branches large, horizontal and drooping; upper branches often ascending to form an open, rounded to pyramidal crown; young trees with a dense, pyramidal crown. Leaves needlelike, crowded and spreading at ends of twigs, remaining attached for 2 years, in fascicles of 3-5, mostly 15-25 cm long, 1.5 mm broad or less, rigid serrulate, dark or yellowish-green, slightly shiny, with stomata in whitish lines on all surfaces. Strobili appear before the new leaves; male strobili many and sessile in whorled, short, crowded clusters near ends of twigs, mostly in lower part of the crown; mature cones usually reflexed, symmetrical; cone scales reflexed or wide spreading, thin, flat, dark chocolate-brown on inner surfaces; seeds narrowly ovoid, about twice as long as broad, pointed at both ends, 3 angled, averaging less than 6 mm long, 3 mm wide, black, mottled grey or light brown. ‘Pinus’ is from the Greek word ‘pinos’ (pine tree), possibly from the Celtic term ‘pin’ or ‘pyn’ (mountain or rock), referring to the habitat of the pine. |
| Pithecellobium dulce | The height of Pithecelobium dulce is commonly 10-15 m, but ranges from 5-18 m. Crown is broad spreading with irregular branches up to 30m across; bole short, up to 1 m thick. The bark is grey, becoming rough, furrowed, and eventually peeling. Leaves are bipinnate, with 2 pairs of 2 kidney-shaped leaflets each 2-2.5 x 1-2 cm, rather resembling Hardwickia binnata. New leaf growth coincides with the loss of old leaves, giving the tree an evergreen appearance. Thin spines are in pairs at the base of leaves, and range from 2 to 15 mm in length. The flowers are in small white heads 1 cm in diameter. Each flower has a hairy corolla and calyx surrounding about 50 thin stamens united in a tube at the base. Pods are 10-15 x 1.5 cm; the colour becoming spiral and reddish-brown as they ripen. Each pod contains 5-10 shiny black seeds up to 2 cm long. The grey bark and tightly-coiled seed pods are characteristic of this tree, and make it easy to distinguish. The genus is often written as Pithecollobium or Pithecolobium. The genus name is derived from the greek words pithekos (an ape) and lobos (a lobe), alluding to the pods, shaped like the human ears. This species was named and described botanically in 1795 from Coromandel, India, where it had been introduced. The specific name, meaning sweet, doubtless refers to the edible seed pulp. |
| Platycladus orientalis | Platycladus orientalis is a large, evergreen shrub or small to medium-sized tree rarely exceeding 20 m in nature, in cultivation it often forms multiple stems; habit dense, usually broadly conical with ascending branches from bare stems; old trees in China often wide-crowned with spreading branches, occasionally it forms a monopodial tree, assuming a columnar habit; bark thin, reddish-brown, exfoliating in thin longitudinal strips with age; branches erect or spreading, with the foliage held in vertically aligned sprays pointing upwards. Leaves light green or yellow-green, becoming brown after 3 or 4 seasons, persistent, scale-like, in opposite-decussate pairs, have no glands. Pollen cones terminal, small (2-3 mm long), seed cones 20-25 mm long, 10-18 mm wide when closed, glaucous green at first, turning reddish brown, usually have 6-8 fleshy scales in an opposite-decussate arrangement, with a deeply recurved dorsal hook below the tip of each scale; this protuberance is the apical part of the bract, around which the fleshy scale develops after the ovules are fertilized, to nearly engulf the bract; scales glaucous when growing, maturing and ripening to bright brown; lower 4 scales fertile with 2(-3) seeds occurring adaxially near the base of the lowest pair, only one on the upper pair. Seeds 5-7 mm long, 3-4 mm diameter, more or less ovate, wingless. This is a monotypic genus; the generic name comes from the Greek word platyclados (with a broad stem). The Greek word results in two English words plate and clad which conjures up the image of plates arranged in a rack as the tree’s foliage appears when viewed from afar. The peculiar arrangement of upright branchlets and flattened lateral twigs gives this tree its unusual leafing habit and explains the origin of its common name (book-leaf pine). The specific epithet means eastern. |
| Podocarpus falcatus | Podocarpus falcatus is an evergreen tree up to 46 m in nature but quite smaller if planted, with a long clean and cylindrical trunk. The crown is slender with a light branching system or sub-opposite or verticellate spreading limbs or small, with crowded branches. The bark is thin, rather smooth and greyish-brown to dark brown in colour. It later exfoliates into rectangular to irregular flakes up to 3 cm long. The blaze is pink in colour. Leaves vary in disposition sometimes being spirally arranged, but at others in two opposite or sub-opposite ranks. They are shortly petiolate and linear to linear-lanceolate, narrowing abruptly to a sharp or blunt apex and basally to a slightly twisted short stalk. The adult leaf is 3-5 x 0.3-0.5 cm, the midrib of the adult leaf is not prominent above but is well marked beneath. The leaf colour is dark green, often with a greyish bloom. The 1-3 male cones (male strobili) are axillary. Each is slender and catkin-like, 4-26 x 7-15 mm. The colour is yellow to pinkish-purple. The female strobili are solitary, hard, ovoid to 2 cm, very slow to develop, green with dull purple bloom, outer shell thin but inner flesh eaten by monkeys and birds. Usually one seed is produced, at the end of a woody stalk slightly expanded at the apex. Fruit fleshy and spherical, up to 17 mm in diameter. Mature seeds of P. falcatus are large, fleshy, about 1.5-3.5 cm in diameter, almost spherical or subglobose and drupe-like, surmounting a terete pedicel. The testa is very hard, 1-8 mm thick, crustaceous, tubercled and enclosed in a very resinous green to yellowish green somewhat fleshy integument. The genus name is derived from ‘podos’, a Greek word for foot and ‘karpos’ meaning fruit, in reference to the swollen seed stalk. Falcatus means sickle-shaped, referring to the shape of the leaves. |
| Polyscias fulva | Polyscias fulva grows to 25-30 m, with a regular branching pattern and a clear, straight bole with branches developing high up, forming a narrow crown and resembling the spokes of a parasol or an umbrella; no thorns or buttresses; bark is smooth and grey in colour; bole is branched, and young stems are marked with prominent leaf scars. Leaves long, strong smelling, alternate, not deciduous, compound, once-pinnate, very large-up to 1 m or more in length, with 8-14 pairs plus a terminal leaflet; leaflets ovate, opposite, sometimes narrowly so, 9-16 x 4.5-8 cm, leathery, dark green, without hairs on the top side, underside surface densely velvety with stellate hairs; apex tapering, often attenuate; base lobed and clasping the rachis, underside coated with soft golden hairs; margin entire; petiolules very short, thickset, almost obscured by lobed base of leaflets, petiolate. Flowers small, greenish-yellow to cream, honey scented, in loose axillary heads or panicles. Branching of the inflorescence is entirely racemose and in a symmetric manner, up to 36 x 12 cm, bisexual, all floral parts pentamerous; disc nearly flat; calyx densely hairy; ovary 2 chambered. Fruit an ovoid to spherical drupe, green when young, purple-black when mature, 3-6 x 3-5 mm, often ribbed, crowned with 2 persistent styles, closely clustered along the sides of branches of the main head; each small fruit contains 2 small, light seeds. The generic name is derived from poly-‘many’; scias-‘shade’, referring to the abundant foliage of members of this genus. |
| Pouteria campechiana | Pouteria campechiana is an erect tree and generally not more than 8 m tall, but it may, in favourable situations, reach height of 27-30 m and the trunk may attain diameter of 1 m. Slender in habit or with a spreading crown, it has brown, furrowed bark and abundant white, gummy latex. Young branches are velvety brown. The evergreen leaves, alternate but mostly grouped at the branch tips, are relatively thin, glossy, short to long-stemmed, oblanceolate, lanceolate-oblong, or obovate, bluntly pointed at the apex, more sharply tapered at the base; 11.25-28 cm long, 4-7.5 cm wide. Fragrant, bisexual flowers, solitary or in small clusters, are borne in the leaf axils or at leafless nodes on slender pedicels. They are 5- or 6-lobed, cream-colored, silky-hairy, about 8-11 mm long. The fruit, extremely variable in form and size, may be nearly round, with or without a pointed apex or curved beak, or may be somewhat oval, ovoid, or spindle-shaped. It is often bulged on one side and there is a 5-pointed calyx at the base, which may be rounded, or with a distinct depression. Length varies from 7.5-12.5 cm and width from 5-7.5 cm, except in the shrubby form, var. palmeri, called huicon -1.5-3 m high–which has nearly round fruits only 2.5 cm long. When unripe the fruit is green-skinned, hard and gummy internally. On ripening, the skin turns lemon yellow, golden-yellow or pale orange-yellow, is very smooth and glossy except where occasionally coated with light-brown or reddish-brown russetting. There may be 1 to 4 hard, freestone seeds, 2-5.3 cm long and 1.25-3.2 cm wide, near-oval or oblong-oval, glossy and chestnut-brown except for the straight or curved ventral side which is dull light-brown, tan or greyish-white. Both ends are sharp-tipped. There are apparently no named cultivars but certain types are so distinct as to have been recorded as different species in the past. The spindle-shaped form (called mammee sapota or eggfruit) was the common strain in the Bahamas for many years, at least as far back as the 1920's. The rounded, broader form began to appear in special gardens in the 1940's, and the larger types were introduced from Florida in the 1950's. |
| Prosopis juliflora | Prosopis juliflora is an evergreen tree with a large crown and an open canopy, growing to a height of 5-10 m. Stem green-brown, sinuous and twisted, with axial thorns situated on both sides of the nodes and branches. Bark somewhat rough; dull red. The root system includes a deep taproot. Leaves compound; leaflets in 13-25 pairs, oblong (3 x 1.7 mm) and dark green, bipinnate with 1 or sometimes 2 pairs of rachis, almost pendulous. Flowers latteral to the axis with a tubular, light greenish-yellow, 1.5 mm wide calyx with hooded teeth; corolla light greenish-yellow, composed of 5 petals with 3 mm wide pubescent along its edges. Fruit a non-dehiscent pod, straight, linear, falcate to annular, with a coraceous mesocarp in 1 segment or divided into several segments; seeds compressed, ovoid, hard, dark brown, with mucilaginous endosperm surrounding the embryo; cotyledons flat, rounded, epigenous when germinating. |
| Prunus africana | Prunus africana is an evergreen tree, 10-24 (36 max.) m in height, with a stem diameter of 1 m; bark blackish-brown and rugged; branchlets dotted with breathing spots, brown and corky; twigs knobbly. Heavy, shining foliage composed of alternate, simple leaves, oval or lance shaped, 5-15 x 2-6 cm; shiny deep green on the top side, duller and lighter underside; conspicuous veins and a distinct midrib prominent on the underside, sometimes widely tapering at both ends and sometimes with a long drawn-out point, or with a round apex; margin finely toothed or untoothed; petiole 2 cm long, pink or red. Crushed leaves have a bitter-almond smell. Flowers small, white or greenish, hairy, fragrant, borne abundantly in bunches 5-7.6 cm long in the axils of leaves or on the side of shoots; solitary or in branched axillary sprays 3-7 cm long; calyx and petals small; 10-20 stamens. Fruits spherical, bitter, 7 mm long, 1.3 cm broad, pinkish-brown, bilobed, with a thin, dark red to reddish-brown pulp when ripe, a depression in the centre covering a papery shell; thin pericarp with 1 or 2 small, delicate, oval seeds inside. Prunus comes from the classical Latin name of the plum tree, from the Greek ‘prunos’ (plum). The specific name means ‘of Africa’. |
| Psidium guajava | Psidium guajava is a large dicotyledonous shrub, or small evergreen tree, generally 3-10 m high, many branches; stems crooked, bark light to reddish brown, thin, smooth, continuously flaking; root system generally superficial and very extensive, frequently extending well beyond the canopy, there are some deep roots but no distinct taproot. Leaves opposite, simple; stipules absent, petiole short, 3-10 mm long; blade oblong to elliptic, 5-15 x 4-6 cm, apex obtuse to bluntly acuminate, base rounded to subcuneate, margins entire, somewhat thick and leathery, dull grey to yellow-green above, slightly downy below, veins prominent, gland dotted. Inflorescence, axillary, 1- to 3-flowered, pedicles about 2 cm long, bracts 2, linear. Calyx splitting irregularly into 2-4 lobes, whitish and sparsely hairy within; petals 4-5, white, linear-ovate c. 2 cm long, delicate; stamens numerous, filaments pale white, about 12 mm long, erect or spreading, anther straw coloured; ovary inferior, ovules numerous, style about 10 cm long, stigma green, capitate. Fruit an ovoid or pear-shaped berry, 4-12 cm long, weighing up to 500 g; skin yellow when ripe, sometimes flushed with red; pulp juicy, creamy-white or creamy-yellow to pink or red; mesocarp thick, edible, the soft pulp enveloping numerous, cream to brown, kidney-shaped or flattened seeds. The exterior of the fruit is fleshy, and the centre consists of a seedy pulp. From the Greek psidion (pomegranate), due to a fancied resemblance between the two fruits. |
| Pycnanthus angolensis | Pycnanthus angolensis is a tree to about 25-35 (40) m high and 60-100 (150) cm in diameter, occasionally more, evergreen; bole straight, cylindrical, without buttresses; bark grey, longitudinally fissured, flaking in patches, in old trees; slash reddish, exuding a sticky, honey-coloured sap turning red. Branches in whorls; twigs and foliage covered in rust-coloured felt. Leaves 18-31 x 5-9 cm, usually with the margins nearly parallel, acuminate at apex, cordate at base, leathery, glabrous on the upper surface, densely covered beneath with a short rust-coloured felt which wears off with age. The leaves are so often eaten by insects that this is a characteristic feature; the midrib is very prominent beneath with the lateral nerves running at a wide angle to it and lopped close to the margin; stalk stout, about 1.3 cm long. Flowers densely clustered at the ends of irregularly-branched panicles 7.5-15 cm long, upright among the leaves or slightly below them; branches stout, rust-coloured. Individual flowers cannot be easily distinguished, the clusters appear as a rust-coloured mass, but the stamens are conspicuous after the male flowers open. Fruits (often occurring within the flowers) ellipsoid or almost spherical drupe, 2.5-3.8 cm long and 1.9-3.2 cm in diameter, often in dense clusters at the base of the twigs, opening by 2 valves and exposing a solitary black seed with a bright red aril much branched at the apex. The generic name, Pycnanthus is derived from Greek, the literal meaning is ‘dense flowers’ and it refers to the numerous flowers crowded together. |
| Quercus floribunda | Quercus floribunda is a large evergreen tree with a dense crown of shining green foliage, a diameter of up to 1.6 m and a straight bole of up to 45 m long. Bark turning dark grey or dark reddish brown with age and exfoliating in irregular woody scales. The moru oak is the largest of the western Himalayan oaks and it is one of six species of Quercus found in Himalayan regions. Leaves shiny green, lanceolate to elliptic, 4-8 cm long, acuminate, with the veins branching short of the margin; margin spiny or smooth; leaves hairless beneath. Margin entire or spinous serrate, coriaceous, glabrous when mature. Male catkins crowded, drooping, lax, up to 7.5 cm long, bracts lanceolate. Female spikes short, to 4 cm long, styles 3-5, linear-clavate. Fruit an acorn, solitary on previous year’s shoots, ovoid or oblong, with a fine point, about twice as long as the cup, about 2 cm long, brown. |
| Quercus humboldtii | Quercus humboldtii is predominantly evergreen tree to 25 m and a diameter to 1 m with buttresses to 1 m. The bark red/grey or grey, fissured, breaking into squares and flaking. Leaves simple, alternate, lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, clustered at the end of the branches; lamina leathery and glabrous, apex acute, base cuneate, shiny green above, lighter green beneath. Flowers yellow, small, unisexual; inflorescence a raceme; male flowers numerous, feminine ones in a cupula, styles long. Fruit light brown, ovoid capsule (acorn) with leathery pericarp, 2-2.5 cm in diameter and 5-7 cm long, resting on a scaly cupule. Only one fruit per cupule is developed, inside of acorn shell woolly. |
| Quercus semecarpifolia | Quercus semecarpifolia is a middle to a large gregarious, evergreen to nearly evergreen tree, forming a long clean bole, attaining a height of 24-30 m and a girth of 210 cm or more under favourable conditions. The larger trees are generally hollow, with young parts clothed with soft hairs. Bark dark grey, rough, cracked into more or less rectangular scales. Leaves 5-12 x 2.5-7.5 cm, elliptic or oblong, spinous-toothed in young trees, often entire on older trees, stiffy, coriaceous, glabrous and dark-green above, generally rusty-tomentose beneath, lateral nerves 6-12 pairs, bifurcating, impressed above, base cordate or rounded. The new leaves, subtended by brown deciduous stipules, are bright green above, with a felty light brown, nearly white beneath. The branches are often festooned with mosses and lichens. Male catkins crowded, 5-10 cm long and congested in seed years, 10-20 cm long in other years. The male catkins and female spikes appear in dense pendulous clusters on the new shoots. Perianth ciliate, stamens indefinite. Acorn solitary, in pairs or in clusters of 3-6 on previous year’s shoots, 2.5 cm diameter, globose, black when ripe, cup soft and leathery, enclosing about a third of the nut, scales green with reddish brown tips. |
| Santalum album | Santalum album is a small evergreen tree that grows to 4 m in Australia, but in India it is much larger and can grow to a height of 20 m; girth of up to 2.4 m, with slender drooping branchlets. Bark is tight, dark brown, reddish, dark grey or nearly black, smooth in young trees, rough with deep vertical cracks in older trees, red inside. Leaves thin, usually opposite, ovate or ovate elliptical, 3-8 x 3-5 cm, glabrous and shining green above, glaucous and slightly paler beneath; tip rounded or pointed; stalk grooved, 5-15 cm long; venation noticeably reticulate. Flowers purplish-brown, small, straw coloured, reddish, green or violet, about 4-6 mm long, up to 6 in small terminal or axillary clusters, unscented in axillary or terminal, paniculate cymes. Fruit a globose, fleshy drupe; red, purple to black when ripe, about 1 cm in diameter, with hard ribbed endocarp and crowned with a scar, almost stalkless, smooth, single seeded. The generic name is derived from the Greek ‘santalon’ meaning ‘sandalwood’, and the species name from the Latin ‘albus’ meaning ‘white’, in allusion to the bark. |
| Schefflera heptaphylla | Schefflera heptaphylla is a small to medium-sized, semi-deciduous or evergreen tree up to 25 m tall, bole up to 80 cm in diameter. Leaves palmately 6-8(-11)-foliolate, polymorphic, petiole 8-35 cm long, leaflets elliptical to ovate-elliptical, 7-20 cm x 3-6 cm, base attenuate, apex narrowly pointed, margin entire, glabrous, petiolules unequal, 1-5 cm long. Inflorescence a well-developed panicle with hairy branches; flowers in many-flowered umbellules or sometimes solitary at the top of secondary axes; flowers 5-merous, ovary 5-8(-10)-locular. Fruit globular, 3-4 mm in diameter, black. In the light of recent taxonomical insight, the species known almost universally since the 1890s as Schefflera octophylla (Lour.) Harms should be called S. heptaphylla (L.) Frodin. It is a renowned medicinal plant from Indo-China, southern China, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands. |
| Schima wallichii | Schima wallichii is an evergreen, medium-sized to large tree growing to 47 m in height; bole cylindrical, branchless for up to 25 m, diameter up to 125 (max. 250) cm, with a steep buttresses rarely up to 1.8 m high; bark surface ruggedly cracked into small, thick, angular pieces, red-brown to dark grey; inner bark with skin-irritating fibres, bright red in colour. Leaves spiral, oblong to broadly elliptic, 6-13 x 3-5 cm; base wedge shaped; apex acute to acuminate; margin toothed; secondary veins 6-8 pairs; petioles about 3 mm long. Flowers solitary in axils at the apices of twigs, with 2 bracteoles, pentamerous; sepals subequal, persistent in fruit; petals connate at base, white, with a rosy flush; stamens many, adnate to the corolla base; anthers versatile; ovary superior, 5-locular with 2-6 ovules in each cell; style simple. Fruit a woody subglobose capsule, 2-3 cm in diameter, silky, opening by 5 valves; seeds winged all around. The genus name is derived from the Greek word skiasma-‘shadow’, probably referring to the dense crown. |
| Schinus molle | Schinus molle is an evergreen tree with weeping foliage, 3-15 m in height; trunk short; crown with equal spread; bark dark brown, deeply fissured, flaking; very sticky latex forms if the bark is damaged. Leaves imparipinnate, with a winged rachis and 20-40 leaflets; leaflets linear-lanceolate, margins entire or dentate, 2-5 cm x 4-8 mm. Flowers in hanging panicles can grow to 30 cm long; petals about 2 mm long; drooping clusters of tiny, pale yellow flowers develop into bunches of pink berries; the more female flowers a tree has the more berries will develop; some trees have mostly male flowers and have almost no ‘peppers’. Fruits are small, round berries that develop from green to red then black. The similarity of this species to the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus) is revealed in the origin of its generic name, from the Greek name for the mastic tree, ‘shinos’. The specific name ‘molle’ is the name by which the tree is known in western South America and is derived from ‘mulli’, the old Peruvian name. The common name ‘pepper-tree’ is due to the fact that the fruits contain seeds with a sharp taste, used for flavouring as a pepper substitute. |
| Senna siamea | Senna siamea is a medium-size, evergreen tree growing up to 18 m tall, with a straight trunk of up to 30 cm in diameter; bole short, crown usually dense and rounded at first, later becoming irregular and spreading with drooping branches. Bark grey or light brown, smooth but becoming slightly fissured with age. The root system consists of a few thick roots, growing to considerable depth, and a dense mat of rootlets in the top 10-20 cm of soil, which may reach a distance of 7 m from the stem in 1 year and eventually a distance up to 15 m. Leaves alternate, pinnately compound, 23-33 cm long, with slender, green-reddish, tinged axis; leaflets 6-12 pairs on short stalks of 3 mm, oblong, 3-7 cm long, 12-20 mm wide, rounded at both ends, with tiny bristle tip. Flower clusters are upright at ends of twigs, large branched, 20-30 cm long, 13 cm broad, with many bright yellow flowers 3 cm across, pentamerous; sepals imbricate, obtuse at the apex; petals subequal to heteromorphic, yellow; stamens 10, accrescent toward the abaxial side of the flower; filaments straight and not more than twice as long as the anthers; ovary superior, linear and curved. Pods numerous, long, narrow, 5-25 cm long, 12-20 mm broad, flat, dark brown, strap shaped, stipitate, terete to compressed, dehiscent, with septae between the numerous seeds; seeds are bean shaped, shiny, dark brown, 8 mm long, with distinct areole. |
| Syzygium aromaticum | Syzygium aromaticum is a small-medium sized evergreen tree, 8-30 m tall. Canopy medium sized, crown base low. Branches semi-erect and numerous. Leaves glabrous, with numerous oil glands on lower surface. Flowers small, in terminal cymose clusters, each peduncle bears 3-4 stalked flowers at the end. Sepals minute triangular projections. Fruit olive-shaped, 1-seeded, popularly referred to as ‘mother of clove’. Most of the plant’s parts are aromatic (leaves, flowers and bark). The brown, dried, unopened flower buds are called cloves, a name coming from the French "clou" meaning nail. Cloves are from a genus of 400-500 species of evergreen trees and shrubs. The generic name is derived from the Greek syzygios (paired), on account of the leaves and twigs that in several species grow at the same point. The specific epithet means aromatic. |
| Syzygium guineense | Syzygium guineense is a medium-sized or tall evergreen tree, 15-30 m high. The bark varies in subspecies and is greyish-white or silver mottled and smooth in young trees, turning rough, flaky, creamy, light grey, dark brown or black in older trees. Bark scales in rectangular flakes and produces red, watery sap if cut; slash is fibrous, even pale brown to dark red-brown. Branchlets sometimes drooping. Crown rounded and heavy; stems thick and angular. Bundles of fibrous aerial roots, about 2 m up the bole, have been observed in Botswana. Leaves narrow at both ends, length 5-17.5 cm, width 1.3-7.5 cm; simple, opposite, elliptic, lanceolate or ovate-elliptic; with margins that are untoothed and sometimes slightly wavy and rolled inward; apex obtuse to acuminate and rounded, occasionally notched; base cuneate; stalk short and grooved; midrib sunken on top, raised below, with many fine, lateral veins; glabrous, grey-green, tough, shiny; fragrant when crushed. Flowers (filaments) 1.5 cm in diameter, sessile or subsessile, fragrant, creamy white; borne in terminal panicles forming heads up to 10 x 10 cm, or with 4-8 widely spaced flowers in branched heads up to 3 cm in diameter; calyx persistent with 4 petals; stamens numerous, about 6 mm long. Petals fall early but the white stamens are showy, making a conspicuous short brush or puff contrasting with the red or pink calyx tips. Fruits ovoid or ellipsoid drupes, 1.2-3.5 cm x 1 x 2.5 cm, 2-3 celled, in bunches of 20 to 30, whitish-green when immature, turning to shiny purplish-black and juicy after ripening; 1-seeded. Seeds are 1.3-1.4 cm in diameter, yellowish to brownish and rounded. ‘Syzygium’ is derived from the Greek ‘syzygios’ (‘paired’), on account of the leaves and twigs that in several species grow at the same point. The specific name means ‘of Guinea’, where the tree was first collected. The common name ‘water pear’ refers to its preference for stream banks and to its wood, supposedly like that of a pear. |
| Syzygium jambos | Syzygium jambos may be merely a shrub but is generally a tree reaching 7.5-12 m in height, and has a dense crown of slender, wide-spreading branches, often the overall width exceeding the height. The evergreen leaves are opposite, lanceolate or narrow-elliptic, tapering to a point, 10-22 cm long, and 2.5-6.25 cm wide; somewhat leathery, glossy, dark-green when mature, rosy when young. The flowers are creamy-white or greenish-white, 5-10 cm wide, consisting mostly of about 300 conspicuous stamens to 4 cm long, a 4-lobed calyx, and 4 greenish-white, concave petals. There are usually 4 or 5 flowers together in terminal clusters. Capped with the prominent, green, tough calyx, the fruit is nearly round, oval, or slightly pear-shaped, 4-5 cm long, with smooth, thin, pale-yellow or whitish skin, sometimes pink-blushed, covering a crisp, mealy, dry to juicy layer of yellowish flesh, sweet and resembling the scent of a rose in flavour. In the hollow center of the fruit, are 1-4 brown, rough-coated, medium-hard, more or less rounded seeds, 1-1.6 cm thick, which loosen from the inner wall and rattle when the fruit is shaken. Fragments of the seed coat may be found in the cavity. The generic name is derived from the Greek syzygios (paired), on account of the leaves and twigs that in several species grow at the same point. |
| Tamarindus indica | Tamarindus indica is a large evergreen tree up to 30 m tall, bole usually 1-2 m, up to 2 m diameter; crown dense, widely spreading, rounded; bark rough, fissured, greyish-brown. Leaves alternate, compound, with 10-18 pairs of opposite leaflets; leaflets narrowly oblong, 12-32 x 3-11 mm, petiole and rachis finely haired, midrib and net veining more or less conspicuous on both surfaces; apex rounded to almost square, slightly notched; base rounded, asymmetric, with a tuft of yellow hairs; margin entire, fringed with fine hairs. Stipules present, falling very early. Flowers attractive pale yellow or pinkish, in small, lax spikes about 2.5 cm in width. Flower buds completely enclosed by 2 bracteoles, which fall very early; sepals 4, petals 5, the upper 3 well developed, the lower 2 minute. Fruit a pod, indehiscent, subcylindrical, 10-18 x 4 cm, straight or curved, velvety, rusty-brown; the shell of the pod is brittle and the seeds are embedded in a sticky edible pulp. Seeds 3-10, approximately 1.6 cm long, irregularly shaped, testa hard, shiny and smooth. As the dark brown pulp made from the fruit resembles dried dates, the Arabs called it ‘tamar-u’l-Hind’, meaning ‘date of India’, and this inspired Linnaeus when he named the tree in the 18th century. Tamarindus is a monospecific genus. |
| Tamarix aphylla | Tamarix aphylla is a fast growing, moderate sized evergreen tree, up to 18 m high with erect tapering trunk, 60-80 cm dbh with many stout spreading purplish brown and smooth branches. Twigs drooping, wiry or needle-like, up to 1.5 mm diameter, jointed, older twigs greenish-brown, hairless, mostly shedding. Bark light grey-brown or reddish-brown, rough, becoming thick and deeply furrowed into long narrow hard ridges. A deep and extensive root system, about 10 m vertically and 34 m horizontally. Leaves bluish-green, alternate, reduced to tiny scales ensheathing wiry twigs and ending in points, hairless, often with epidermal salt glands each forming a joint along the twig. Flowers many, nearly stalkless, tiny, whitish-pink, in racemes 3-6 mm long, 4-5 mm broad at end of twigs, drooping. Fruit a small capsule, many, narrow, pointed, 5 mm long, splitting into 3 parts. Seeds many, 0.5 mm long, brown, each with tuft of whitish hairs 3 mm long. The specific name means without leaves. |
| Tarchonanthus camphoratus | Tarchonanthus camphoratus is an evergreen shrub or small tree to 9 m tall, usually much-branched with a narrow crown; trunk diameter to 40 cm; bark brown or grey, rough, longitudinally fissured, exfoliating in long strips; young stems densely covered by white felt-like tomentum. Leaves shortly petiolate; petiole 0.2-1 cm long; blade narrowly to broadly elliptic or oblanceolate, 2-13.5 cm long, 0.4-4.5 cm wide, base cuneate or attenuate, margins entire, apex obtuse or subacute and shortly mucronate, discolourous, green and glabrous except for mid-rib above, felted with dense white or grey tomentum beneath, prominently pinnately veined, strongly camphor-scented when crushed. Floral heads small, numerous in usually copious terminal compound open paniculoid thyrses leafy in lower part, with smaller bracts in upper part and yellow-brown tomentose when young, shortly pedicellate; involucres campanulate, 2.5-6 mm long; phyllaries 2-6 mm long, tomentose beneath, glabrous above, in male capitula connate in lower 1/2-1/4, in female capitula free. Male florets 12-66, corolla white, tube infundibuliform, 1.8-3.5 mm long with long white hairs, lobes ovate, 0.5-0.8 mm long. Achenes obovoid in outline, narrowed towards the base and apex, brown, 1.6-4 mm long, 1-ribbed on the other, densely covered in long white cotton-woolly hairs and crowned with persistent corolla. Tarchonanthus is a genus closely related to Brachylaena, with two species ranging from Saudi Arabia through East Africa to South Africa. |
| Taxus baccata | Taxus baccata is an evergreen, under-storey tree to 30 m tall, with a spreading crown. It tends to be forked, fluted with depressions at branch-stem junctions. Branches are ascending to drooping with twigs irregularly alternate, green or yellow-green when young, reddish brown with age. The bark is reddish-grey or reddish brown, thin, smooth, peeling off in longitudinal narrow shreds. Leaves in to 2 rows, needle-like, 1.5-2.8 by 0.2-0.25 cm, usually curved, acuminate. Margins, slightly inrolled, dark-green and shining above, brownish-yellow and somewhat pale beneath, single nerved and narrowing into a short petiole. Flower inconspicuous, yellowish with female blooms on small flaky handles. Seed hard, surrounded by a red fleshy aril, looking like a berry, about 7 mm in diameter. |
| Teclea nobilis | Teclea nobilis is an unarmed evergreen shrub or tree (3-)5-12 m high or much taller in rain forest; bark smooth or grey; branchlets glabrous. Leaves trifoliolate, occasionally 2-or 1 foliolate; petiole 1.5-6(-8) cm long, terete or sometimes slightly grooved at the apex usually glabrous; leaflets subsessile or with a petiolulate up to 10 mm long, oblong-elliptic, 5-15(-18) cm long, 1.5-4(-5.5) cm broad, acute to acuminate at the apex, narrowly cuneate at the base, glabrous, but sometimes puberulous on the midrib; lateral nerves numerous. Inflorescence of terminal and axillary panicles 4-15(-21) cm long, glabrous. Flowers polygamous. Sepals 4, united into a cupuliform calyx 0.6-0.8 mm long; lobes small, ovate, ciliate. Petals 4(-5), narrowly elliptic, 3.5-4 mm long, 1.5-1.7 mm broad. Male flowers with 4(-5) stamens 3-5.5 mm long; anthers basifixed; rudimentary ovary slender and glabrous. Female flower with 4 or 5 staminodes 0.5-1.2 mm long. Ovary subglobose, 1-1.4 mm in diameter, glabrous unilocular, 2-ovulate; style up to 0.5 mm long; stigma disk-shaped and peltate, 1 mm in diameter, red, glabrous, barely foveolate, wrinkled when dry, 1-seeded. Fruit yellow, orange or red, round or ellipsoid becoming wrinkled, 6-8 x 5-6 mm. Seed ovoid, 5.5-6 mm long. The specific epithet nobilis is after the Latin word "nobilissimus" meaning noble or reknowned. |
| Tecomaria capensis | Tecomaria capensis is an evergreen scrambler to small tree with a roundish crown. Bark pale brown, lenticelled with longitudinal furrows on old stems. Leaves opposite, unevenly compound, up to 13 cm long, with 2-5 pairs of leaflets, terminal leaflet largest, margins coarsely toothed, glossy green above. Fruit a narrow, flat pod-like capsule up to 13 cm long. Seeds with large papery wings. There are 3 garden cultivars; “coccinea” with light red flowers on a bushy plant, “lutea” with bright yellow flowers on a spreading bush and “salmonii” with salmon-coloured flowers. The genus Tecomaria is monotypic and has affinities with Tecoma. |
| Thespesia populnea | Thespesia populnea is a shrub or medium-sized evergreen tree, up to 20 m tall with a dense crown. Bark greyish. Twigs densely covered with brown to silvery scales, glabrescent. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 5-8 (max. 16) cm long; stipule lanceolate to subulate, 3-10 mm long, scaly; blade orbicular, deltoid, ovate or oblong, 7-23 x 5-16 cm, apex acuminate, base generally cordate, sinus deep and narrow, rather fleshy and shiny, palmately 7-veined, in the axils of the basal veins beneath, mostly with saccate nectaries, main veins yellow. Inflorescence a large solitary axillary flower; pedicel 2.5-8 cm long, erect or ascending, sometimes articulate with 2 scalelike bracts near the base. Calyx campanulate, subtruncate, 12-14 mm long, 18 mm in diameter, densely adpressed hirsute within, scaly, glabrescent outside; corolla broadly campanulate, up to 6 cm long and wide, pale yellow with dark purple centre; petals 5, obliquely obovate, 6-7 x 4.5-6 cm. Fruit a globose capsule, 2-4.5 cm in diameter, faintly 5-angular, 5-celled, apex obtuse or slightly depressed, with disclike calyx at the base of the young fruit, usually indehiscent, exuding a bright yellow gum when cut. Seeds 4 per cell, obovoid, 8-15 x 6-9 mm, slightly angular, covered by closely matted silky hairs. The generic name is based on the Greek word ‘thespesios'-divine, supposedly because T. populnea was frequently planted round temples. The specific name means looking like the popular tree. |
| Treculia africana | Treculia africana is an evergreen forest tree 10-30 (max. 50) m in height and 3 m in girth with a dense spreading crown and fluted trunk. Bark grey, smooth and thick; when cut, exuding white latex which later turns rusty-red. Leaves simple, alternate, very large, about 30 (max. 50) x 14 (max. 20) cm, dark green, smooth above, tough, paler below with some hairs on the 10-18 pairs of clear veins; tip pointed; a short stalk to 1.5 cm. Young leaves red or yellow. Flower head brown-yellow, rounded, 2.5-10 cm across, male and female usually separate, growing beside leaves (axillary) or on older wood down the trunk. Fruit compound, rounded, very large, on the trunk or main branches, containing many orange seeds, about 1 cm, buried in spongy pulp of the fruit. The outer surface is covered with rough pointed outgrowths. The fruit attains 40 cm in diameter and weighs 8-14 kg. Based on detailed field observations, 3 varieties have been recognized: T. africana var. africana, T. africana var. inversa and T. africana var. mollis. Their taxonomic differences are based mainly on the size of the fruit head (infructence) and the hairiness of branchlets and leaves. There is a striking variation in the number of fruit heads produced by trees belonging to T. african var. africana (with large fruit heads) and T. african var. inversa (with small fruit heads). The former is clearly superior in the weight of seeds produced while the latter produces more fruit and also produces twice as many branches. |
| Trema orientalis | Trema orientalis is an evergreen shrub or tree up to 18 m in height. A short basally swollen bole, heavy branching and rounded to spreading crown. The slender branchlets are covered with white velvety hairs. Bark grey or brown, smooth but marked with parallel longitudinal lines and corky spots; slash creamy-white to light yellow, fibrous, bright green immediately beneath the bark. It has an extensive root system that enables it to survive long periods of drought. Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, along drooping branches, to 14 cm long, papery, rough to the touch and dull above, short grey hairs below, the edge finely toothed all round, blade unequal sided. Flowers small, green or greenish-white, unisexual, borne in a crowded inflorescence consisting mainly of male flowers with a few female ones at the top. Fruit small, round and fleshy, glossy black when ripe, 4-6 mm, containing 1 dull black seed embedded in bright green flesh. The name Trema is based on the Greek word for a hole and alludes to the pitted seeds. The specific name, ‘orientalis’ is Latin for eastern-'of the orient.' |
| Trichilia emetica | Trichilia emetica is an evergreen tree, usually up to 21 m tall but occasionally reaching 30 m, trunk swollen at the base, sometimes becoming fluted with age. Bark grey-brown or red-brown with fine, shallow striations and smallish scales. Branches erect or partly spreading, producing a pyramid-shaped crown when young, oval to rounded and dense when mature with a diameter sometimes exceeding 15 m. The tree has a non-aggressive root system. Leaves up to 50 cm long, unevenly compound with 3-5 pairs of leaflets plus a terminal one, dark green and glossy above, covered with short brownish hairs below, margins entire, veins prominent on lower surface. Flowers creamy to pale yellow-green, produced on short, congested axillary panicles, fragrant, with 5 thick petals, about 2 cm, surrounding a hairy centre of stamens. Fruit rounded, furry, red-brown capsules to 3 cm across, split into 3 or 4 parts to reveal 3-6 shiny black seeds 14-18 mm in length, each with a fleshy scarlet or orange-red aril almost covering the seed. A clear neck to 1 cm long connects the capsule to the fruit stalk. The name ‘Trichilia’ is Greek for ‘in 3 parts’, referring to the 3-lobed fruit, and ‘emetica’ means with emetic properties. |
| Uapaca kirkiana | Uapaca kirkiana is a small to medium-sized evergreen or semi-deciduous tree with spreading multiple branches forming a dense rounded crown. The trunk is short and stout, attaining a height of 5-12 m and diameter of 5-25 cm. The bark is dark grey or grey-brown, thick and deeply fissured. Branchlets short, thick with prominent leaf scars. The young shoots are covered with creamy-brown hairs. Leaves are simple and alternately arranged in clusters concentrated at the ends of branchlets, 7-36 x 4-24 cm, secondary nerves parallel and quite prominent beneath, in 12-16 pairs. The young leaves are covered with curly hairs on the undersurface. Flower buds globose, flowers pale yellow, borne in short slender asicular and axillary peduncles. The male flowers are in dense clusters, the female flowers solitary; male and female flowers borne on different trees. Fruit is round, skin tough, yellow-brown, up to 3.3 cm in diameter, the flesh yellowish, edible and sweet tasting with a pear-like flavour. Fruit contains 3-4 seeds. Seeds white, up to 2 cm long, 1.3 cm. thick. ‘Uapaca’ is derived from the Malagasy name ‘voa-paca’ used for the Madagascar species; U. thouarsii, which was the 1st member of the genus to be scientifically described by Ballion. The specific epithet kirkiana was given in honour of Sir John Kirk, explorer and naturalist (1832-1922). |
| Vitex pubescens | Vitex pubescens is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree, up to 25(-30) m tall, often with a crooked bole, up to 70 cm in diameter at breast height; bark surface smooth, shallowly fissured or flaky, pale grey to yellowish-brown, inner bark pale yellow to bright orange; branches quadrangular, crown often spreading. Leaves opposite, compound, (3-)5 foliolate; leaflets and petioles pubescent below; lateral leaflet sessile or nearly so, elliptic, 10-20 cm long. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate, with prominent bracts; calyx cup-shaped, 5-lobed, lobes subequal, c. 2 mm long, flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, corolla bluish-white to violet, 0.8-1.25 cm long, 2-lipped, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip much larger and 3-lobed, pubescent outside; stamens 4, inserted on the corolla tube, exserted, didynamous. Ovary superior, 2-4-chambered, with 1 filiform style having a bifid stigma. Fruit a drupe, subglobose, 7-13 mm in diameter, purplish-black when mature, sessile on the often enlarged calyx, 1-4 seeded. Seed obovoid or oblong, lacking endosperm. The specific epithet pubescens means hairy. |
| Warburgia salutaris | Warburgia salutaris is an aromatic evergreen tree, usually 5-10 m in height, but reaching 20 m in some areas, with a dense erect canopy. Bark smooth and grey on young branches but brown and slightly rough with prominent yellowish corky lenticels on older branches and stems; inner bark reddish, with a peppery smell. Leaves aromatic, alternate, simple, elliptic to lanceolate, 4.5-11 x 1-3 cm, glossy dark green above, paler green and dull below; midrib frequently slightly off-centre; apex and base tapering; margin entire; petiole 1-3 mm long. Flowers bisexual, up to 7 mm in diameter, solitary or in 3-flowered cymes in axils of leaves, green, 3 sepals, 10 petals, 5 inner petals smaller, thinner in texture and yellower than outer 5, filaments fused to form a prominent staminal tube. Fruit oval berries, 4 cm in diameter, turning dark purple when ripe; skin leathery, glandular, black when mature. Containing 2 or more seeds with oily endosperm. The genus is named after Dr Otto Warburg (1859-1938), born in Hamburg, a lecturer in botany at the University of Berlin and author of numerous botanical papers. The specific name ‘salutaris’ means ‘healthy’ or ‘salutary’, presumably in reference to its medicinal properties. |
| Warburgia stuhlmannii | Warburgia stuhlmannii is a small evergreen tree 12-24 m high, with a bole to 8 m, girth 1.5 m. Bark yellow to grey-black, splitting into irregular flakes. Slash blood-red turning brown. Leaves very glossy above, elliptic, base cuneate, apex acute (and often somewhat asymmetrical), 3-9.5 by 1.5-3.5 cm; petiole 3-5 mm. Flowers green, or yellow-green, subtended by 3 bracts, 5-6 mm long. Fruit a berry, green, with a waxy bloom, globose, 12-15 mm across, containing 2 or more seed with an oily endosperm. The genus is named after Dr Otto Warburg (1859-1938), born in Hamburg, lecturer in botany at the University of Berlin and author of numerous botanical papers. |
| Xylopia aethiopica | Xylopia aethiopica is a slim, tall, evergreen, aromatic tree to 15–30 m high and about 60–70 cm in diameter with straight stem, many-branched crown and sometimes buttressed. Bark grey-brown, smooth or finely vertically fissured and peeling easily. Leaves simple, alternate, oblong, elliptic to ovate, 8-16.5 by 2.8-6.5 cm, leathery, bluish-green and without hairs above, but with fine brownish hairs below, margin entire, and glabrous; petiole 0.3-0.6 cm, thickset and dark-coloured. Flowers bisexual, solitary or in 3-5 flowered fasicles or in strange, sinuous, branched spikes, or cymes, up to 5.5 by 0.4 cm and creamy-green. Fruits small, carpels 7-24, forming dense cluster, twisted bean-like pods, dark brown, cylindrical, 1.5-6 cm long and 4-7 mm thick; the contours of the seeds are visible from outside. Seeds black, 5-8 per pod, kidney-shaped seeds of approximately 10 mm length with a yellow papery aril. The hull is aromatic, but not the seed itself. Xylopia is Greek (‘xylon pikron’) for ‘bitter wood’, while aethiopica refers its Ethiopian origin. |
| Zelkova serrata | Zelkova serrata is a deciduous tree, vase shaped when young, rounded umbrella-like habit when mature (roughly the same shape as Ulmus americana), main branching starts low creating a short trunk, grows to 15.2-18.3 m in height and rarely reaches 30.5 m. Older trees grown in the open can have a very wide and majestic canopy. Leaves alternate, dark green above and much paler below, simple, oblong-ovate, 2.5-5 cm long but can be up to 12.7 cm long on some fast growing shoots with acuminate tips, pinnately veined and serrate leaf margin. Leaves are dark green above and much paler below. The foliage puts on a showy display in fall when the leaves turn yellow then orange or red before dropping. Flower monoecious; yellow-green, not showy, occur in tight clusters along new stems; appearing before the leaves. Fruit a small triangular drupe, pea green turning brown, sub-sessile, 2.5 cm long and 2.5-3.5 mm in diameter with the surface covered by an irregular network of low ridges. Twig very slender, zigzag, red-brown with widely divergent, pointed, cone-shaped buds. Bark smooth and red-brown to gray when young with numerous lenticels; remains smooth for many years but eventually exfoliates into small patches exposing an orange to reddish brown inner bark. |
| Ziziphus mauritiana | Ziziphus mauritiana is a spiny, evergreen shrub or small tree up to 15 m high, with trunk 40 cm or more in diameter; spreading crown; stipular spines and many drooping branches. Bark dark grey or dull black, irregularly fissured. Where climatic conditions are severe, it is commonly a compact shrub only 3-4 m tall. Leaves variable, alternate, in 2 rows, oblong-elliptic, 2.5-6 x 1.5-5 cm, with tip rounded or slightly notched base; finely wavy-toothed on edges, shiny green and hairless above; dense, whitish, soft hairs underneath. Inflorescence axillary cymes, 1-2 cm long, with 7-20 flowers; peduncles 2-3 mm long; flowers 2-3 mm across, greenish-yellow, faintly fragrant; pedicels 3-8 mm long; calyx with 5 deltoid lobes, hairy outside, glabrous within; petals 5, subspathulate, concave, reflexed. Fruit a drupe, globose to ovoid, up to 6 x 4 cm in cultivation, usually much smaller when wild; skin smooth or rough, glossy, thin but tough, yellowish to reddish or blackish; flesh white, crisp, juicy, subacid to sweet, becoming mealy in fully ripe fruits. Seed a tuberculate and irregularly furrowed stone, containing 1-2 elliptic brown kernels each 6 mm long. The name ‘Ziziphus’ is often erroneously written as Zizyphus. The generic name is derived from the latinized version of the Arabic vernacular name ‘zizouf’ for Z. jujuba. |
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