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 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 crassicarpa | Acacia crassicarpa is a small- to medium-sized tree 25 m (max. 30) tall; bole often straight and branchless for about 13-18 m; up to 50-60 cm in diameter; crown heavily branched and spreading. Bark dark or grey brown, hard with deep vertical furrows; inner bark is red and fibrous. Phyllodes falcate, 8-27 x 1-4.5 cm, greyish-green, glabrous; primary veins 3-5, prominent, longitudinal, tending to run into the lower margin at the base; secondary veins parallel, not anastomosing, crowded; pulvinus, 4-20 mm long with a circular gland at the top. Inflorescence a bright yellow spike, 4-7 cm long, clustered in groups of about 2-6 in the upper axils; peduncle 5-10 mm long, rachis thick; flowers pentamerous, bisexual; calyx broadly cupular, 0.5-0.7 mm long, lobes concave, lobed to about halfway down; corolla widely spreading, glabrous, 1.3-1.6 mm long, 2-3 times as long as the calyx; stamens 2-3 mm long; ovary shortly pubescent, more densely hairy at the top. Pod woody, ovoid-oblong, flat, 5-8 x 2-4 cm, glabrous, dull brown, transversely veined but hardly reticulate. Seed oblongoid, 5-6 x 2-3 mm, black, arranged separately in separate compartments; areole large and almost closed; funicle folded and thickened, forming a long, pale creamy-yellow aril below the seed. The generic name acacia comes from the Greek word ‘akis’ meaning a point or a barb, and the specific epithet is from Latin, 'crassus' (thick) and 'carpus' (fruit), in reference to its thick pod. |
| Acacia erioloba | A large, spreading tree, 9-10 (max. 18) m high, branching about 2 m above the ground; occasionally a shrub barely 2 m tall; crown rounded, dense, spreading up to 18 m; branches drooping at the ends; sapwood yellow and the under bark is reddish; bark dark greyish-brown to blackish, rough, fibrous, fissured, often flaking off in thick, woody strips when old; young twigs shiny, purplish or reddish, without hairs, distinctively zigzag shaped; taproots, long. Leaves with 2-5 pairs of pinnae, each bearing 8-15 pairs of bluish-green leaflets 4-10 x 1-4 mm, remaining conspicuously green in the dry season; thorns dark brown, later grey or whitish, in pairs at the nodes, stout and straight, 1-5 cm long, at right angles to each other and pointing in the opposite direction to the previous pair; base of older thorns often inflated into an enlarged ant-gall 0.5-2 cm wide. Inflorescence consists of a ball of bright golden yellow, solitary or clustered, fragrant flowers. Pods green, broad, large, 1.3-2.5 cm thick but flattened, spongy within, half-moon shaped, 6-13 x 1.8-6.5 cm, curved through to 90-180 degrees, semi-woody, indehiscent, covered in dense grey hairs and containing hard, brown seeds that lie in several rows; some pods thin, round and long. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The scientific name ‘erioloba’ is Latin for ‘half-moon shaped’, referring to the shape of the pods. |
| 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 lahai | Acacia lahai is a flat-topped tree 3-15 m tall with rough brown or grey-brown bark. Young branchlets brown to blackish-purple, pubescent. Stipules spinescent, up to 7 cm long, straight, subulate but not enlarged or fusiform, prickles absent below stipules. Bark gray-brown and fibrous in texture. Leaves pinnate, pinnae 3-15 pairs, leaflets glabrous 10-28 pairs, 1.5-4.5 mm long 0.3-1.0 mm wide. Flowers cream or white, sessile, in spikes 2.5-7 cm long on peduncles 0.7-2 cm long, axis with many subsessile or subsessile glands. Calyx 0.5-1.25 mm long. Corolla 2-3 mm long, glabrous, 4-5 lobed. Stamen filaments 4.5-5 mm long; anthers 0.1 mm across with a caducous gland. Fruit a brown, straight or falcate, dehiscent pod, glabrous on stipe, 4-7 cm long x 1.5-3 cm wide. Seeds obliquely obovate, flattened, 6-7 mm long x 5 mm wide. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning point or barb. |
| Acacia leucophloea | Acacia leucophloea is a large thorny tree attaining a height of 35 m and a diameter at breast height of 100 cm. Trunk stout, dividing into several large diameter branches. Open-grown specimens have a characteristic wide umbrella-like crown. Bark white to yellowish gray, smooth, exfoliating in long strips, on old trees becoming black and rough. Leaves bipinnately compound, with 4-13 pairs of pinnae, each with 5-30 pairs of leaflets. Circular glands found on the rachis below the junction of paired-pinnae. The feathery green foliage offers a strong contrast to the light-coloured bark. Spines 2-5 mm long, at the base of leaves. Flowers conspicuous, light-yellow to cream in colour, in pendunculate glomerules aggregated in terminal or axillary panicles, 5-merous, corolla 1.2-2 mm long. Pods yellow, green or brown in colour, flat and fairly straight, 10-20 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, containing 10-20 smooth, oblong seeds, dark brown in colour, 6 x 4 mm in size. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning point or barb. |
| 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 mellifera | Acacia mellifera is a low, branched tree with a more or less spherical crown. Black bark on stem becomes ash-grey to light brown on the branches, bearing small, short, sharply hooked spines in pairs. It has a shallow but extensive root system radiating from the crown, allowing the plant to exploit soil moisture and nutrients from a large volume of soil. The roots rarely penetrate more than 1 m. Leaves characterized by 2 pairs of pinnulae, each with a single pair of leaflets. Leaflets elliptic 0.6-2 cm long and 0.6-1.2 cm wide, glabrous and highly coloured beneath. Flowers sweetly scented, especially at night, in elongated spikes, cream to white in spiciform racemes, up to 3.5 cm long; pedicels 0.5-1.5 mm long; calyx up to 1 mm long; corolla 2.5-3.5 mm long. The papery pods with 2-3-seeds are reticulate, flat, elongated, 2.5-5.5 cm long, 6 cm wide, hemmed, sometimes more or less narrowed between the seeds. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning point or barb. The specific name means ‘honey-bearing’. |
| Acacia saligna | Acacia saligna is a dense and multi stemmed, thornless, spreading shrub or a single-stemmed, small tree up to 9 m in height; bark is smooth and grey to red-brown on branchlets becoming dark grey and fissured with age. Leaves alternate, simple, flattened phyllodes, varying from very narrow to lance-shaped, about 10 times as long as wide, mostly 8-25 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide, straight or slightly curved to the side, long, pointed and tapering at both ends like ribbons, hairless, often drooping, dull blue-green to whitish, with a permanent midvein and many fine side veins; large dotlike gland 1-2 mm or more in diameter at base of upper edge of phyllode. Flower clusters (heads) like balls, mostly 2-10 (sometimes 1), on stalks along axis (racemes) to 8 cm long at base of leaf; round, bright yellow or deep golden heads, 7-10 mm in diameter, with many (25-55) crowded, tiny flowers, abundant and showy; flowers stalkless, 3-4 mm long, mostly hairless, composed of calyx 1.5 mm long with conical tube and 5 short, rounded lobes, often finely hairy on edge; corolla of 5 narrow, long-pointed petals, 2-3 mm long, united near base; many threadlike stamens, pistil with hairless ovary and slender style. Fruits very narrow, 8-12 cm long and 4-6 mm wide, straight and flattened. There are 6 to 10 beanlike seeds, each 5-6 mm long x 3-2.5 mm wide, dark brown to black, shiny. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. The specific name means ‘willowlike’ and describes the phyllodes. |
| Acacia senegal | Acacia senegal is a deciduous shrub, growing to 15 m tall and usually branched from the ground. Branches fork repeatedly and in mature trees commonly form a rounded, flat-topped crown. The trunk may vary in diameter up to about 30 cm. The bark is greyish-white, although in old trees growing in the open it may be dark, scaly and thin, showing the bright green cambium layer just below the surface if scratched with a nail. The slash is mottled red. Powerful hooked thorns, 3-5 mm long, with enlarged bases appear at the nodes of the branches, usually in 3s. They are sharp, with some pointing forwards and others backwards. Leaves bipinnate, 3-8 pinnae (glands between uppermost and lowermost pinnae); rachis up to 2.5 cm long; pinnacles are pairs of 8-15, green; 2 stipular spines strongly recurved with a 3rd pseudo-stipular between them. Flowers yellowish-white and fragrant, in cylindrical, axillary pedunculate spikes, 5-10 cm long; calyx of each flower has 5 deep lobes, 5 petals and a mass of short stamens; pistil inconspicuous. The pods are straight, thin, flat, shortly stipitate and oblong (7.5 x 2 cm), green and pubescent when young, maturing to shiny bronze, often with dark patches and bearing prominent veins; seeds 3-6, smooth, flat, rather small, shiny, dark brown. Varietal differences in A. senegal are based on variation in natural distribution as well as differences in morphological characteristics such as the presence or absence of hair on the axis of the flower spike, colour of the axis, shape of pod tips, number of pinnae pairs, occurrence of a distinct trunk and shape of the crown. Four different varieties of Acacia senegal are recognized: var. senegal, var. kerensis Schweinf., var. rostrata Brenan and var. leiorhachis Brenan. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning a point or a barb. |
| Acacia seyal | Acacia seyal is a small to medium-sized tree, growing to 17 m tall and 60 cm in diameter at breast height; crown is umbrella shaped, resembling that of A. tortilis. A characteristic feature of the tree is its rust-coloured powdery bark; A. seyal var. fistula has whitish bark. Large, straight spines occur on the branches, and smaller, curved thorns are present near the tips of the branches. Leaves bipinnate, dark green, 4-12 pairs of pinnae, 10-12 pairs of leaflets each 1-2 x 4-12 mm. Flowers clustered in shining, yellow, globose heads, 1.5 cm diameter, on stems 3 cm long. Pods 10-15 x 1 cm, slightly curved, light brown when mature and indehiscent, containing 6-10 seeds. Seeds are elliptic (5-6 x 2.5-3.5 mm ), olive-brown branches. The generic name ‘acacia’ comes from the Greek word ‘akis’, meaning ‘point’ or ‘barb’. |
| 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. |
| Adenanthera pavonina | Adenanthera pavonina is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree, 6-15 m tall and up to 45 cm diameter, depending on location; generally erect; bark dark brown to greyish; inner bark soft, pale brown; crown spreading; multiple stems common, as are slightly buttressed trunks in older trees. Leaves bipinnate; 2-6 opposite pairs of pinnae, each with 8-21 leaflets on short stalks; alternate leaflets 2-2.5 x 3 cm, oval-oblong, with an asymmetric base and blunt apex, dull green on topside and blue-green underside; leaves turn yellow with age. Flowers borne in narrow spikelike racemes, 12-15 cm long, at branch ends; flowers small, creamy yellow, fragrant; each flower star shaped with 5 petals, connate at the base, and having 10 prominent stamen-bearing anthers tipped with minute glands. Pods long and narrow, 15-22 x 2 cm with slight constrictions between seeds, dark brown, turning black upon ripening, leathery, curve and twist upon dehiscence to reveal 8-12 hard-coated, showy seeds, 7.5-9 mm in diameter, lens shaped, vivid scarlet; seeds adhere to pod. Ripened pods remain on the tree for long periods, sometimes until the following spring. The name ‘Adenanthera’ is derived from a combination of the Greek words ‘aden’, a gland, and ‘anthera’, anther, alluding to the anther’s characteristics of being tipped and having a deciduous gland. |
| Aegle marmelos | Aegle marmelos is a slow-growing, medium sized tree, up to 12-15 m tall with short trunk, thick, soft, flaking bark, and spreading, sometimes spiny branches, the lower ones drooping. Young suckers bear many stiff, straight spines. A clear, gummy sap, resembling gum arabic, exudes from wounded branches and hangs down in long strands, becoming gradually solid. It is sweet at first taste and then irritating to the throat. The deciduous, alternate leaves, borne singly or in 2's or 3's, are composed of 3 to 5 oval, pointed, shallowly toothed leaflets, 4-10 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, the terminal one with a long petiole. New foliage is glossy and pinkish-maroon. Mature leaves emit a disagreeable odor when bruised. Fragrant flowers, in clusters of 4 to 7 along the young branchlets, have 4 recurved, fleshy petals, green outside, yellowish inside, and 50 or more greenish-yellow stamens. The fruit, round, pyriform, oval, or oblong, 5-20 cm in diameter, may have a thin, hard, woody shell or a more or less soft rind, gray-green until the fruit is fully ripe, when it turns yellowish. It is dotted with aromatic, minute oil glands. Inside, there is a hard central core and 8 to 20 faintly defined triangular segments, with thin, dark-orange walls, filled with aromatic, pale-orange, pasty, sweet, resinous, more or less astringent, pulp. Embedded in the pulp are 10 to 15 seeds, flattened-oblong, about 1 cm long, bearing woolly hairs and each enclosed in a sac of adhesive, transparent mucilage that solidifies on drying. |
| Afzelia africana | Afzelia africana is a large deciduous tree with a spreading crown, to 30 (-35) m tall in forests and 10-18 m tall in savannah. The average dbh is 1 m. The stem has relatively thick, unequal buttresses with a light concave profile; in general they are 1-1.5 m tall and 1-2 m wide. Twigs glabrous, with lenticels. The bark is a reddish-grey, scaly, about 2 cm thick. It exfoliates in rounded patches, protecting the tree effectively against the frequent bush-fires of the dry season. The rosy slash exudes a dark yellow, highly aromatic resin. Leaves bright green, paripinnate, to 30 cm long each with 7-17 pairs of elliptic or ovate glabrous leaflets. Petioles 0.4-1.0 cm long. Flowers white to yellowish, 1.5 cm long, with one single red striped petal, set in terminal panicles to 20 cm long. Fruit a flat pod 12-17 x 5-8 x 3.5 cm hard, slightly rounded, dark brown to black, glabrous with a distinct beak at one end. Each pod contains several black seeds. Seeds poisonous, 2-3 cm long, with sweet bright orange edible aril in one-third of its length from the base. The genus name ‘Afzelia’ is after Adam Afzelius, a Swedish botanist (1750-1837) who made the first collection when he visited Sierra Leone in 1792 and from 1794-96 |
| Afzelia quanzensis | Afzelia quanzensis is a deep-rooted, deciduous tree, 4-24 (35 max.) m high, with a huge, spreading crown; straight trunk up to about 1 m in diameter; bark quite smooth, grey-green or creamy-brown to pale grey, seamed crosswise or beautifully patterned with raised rings that flake off irregularly in circular patches. New foliage is copper coloured and glossy, becoming dark green with age; leaves alternate, 30 cm long, divided once, made up of 4-7 pairs of oval or elliptic leaflets, usually about 4-13 x 3-7 cm, shiny, smooth, with wavy edges, borne on very short stalks that are twisted and swollen at the junction with the twig; apex generally rounded or obtuse and slightly notched; base cuneate or rounded. Buds long, green, well-shaped, in rather short terminal racemes, opening into fragrant flowers that have 4 green, boat-shaped sepals 0.9-1.7 cm long, from which protrudes a single flaring, orange-red petal with yellow veining, which is bilobed, up to 2.5 cm long (other petals are reduced to small scales); stamens puffy, long and white. Only 1 flower head opens at a time. Fruit large, thick, hard, smooth, dark brown, flat, woody pod, usually up to about 12-23 (30 max.) cm long, 5-10 cm wide, 1.9 cm thick; 6-10 seeds, hard, shiny, oblong, black beans, with a red or orange aril. ‘Afzelia’ is named after Adam Afzelius of Uppsala, Sweden, who lived in Sierra Leone; ‘quanzensis’ is named after the Cuanza River in Angola. |
| Albizia adianthifolia | Albizia adianthifolia grows from 6-15 m high. Crown flat, wide-spreading. The trunk is tall and straight, the bark grey and fairly smooth or sometimes roughish, crocodile flaking. Pinnae 5-8 pairs 9 (rarely only 3 on occasional reduced leaves), each pinna about narrowing upwards; leaflets of 2 distal pairs of pinnae (8) 9-17 pairs mostly c. 7-17 (24) x 4-9(15) mm, obliquely rhombic-quadrate or oblong; proximate margin at base usually obtuse and mucronate, sometimes subacate, surface of leaflet thinly pubescent above, rather plentifully pubescent all over beneath, raised venation beneath closed. Stipules and bracts at base of peduncles c. 5-12 x 3-6(8) mm, ovate. Peduncles clothed as the young brachlets; bracteoles variably persistent, 5-8 mm long, exceeding the flower buds, linear-spathulate to oblanceolate. Flowers sub-sessile; pedicel pubescent, 0.5-1(2) mm long; calyx 2.5-5 (rarely only 2) mm. long, pubescent outside. Corolla 6-11 mm long, white or greenish-white, pubsecent, outside. The staminal tube exserted c. 1.3-2.5 cm beyond the corolla, red to wholly greenish or pink. Pods dehiscent 9-19 x 1.9-3.4(4.3) cm, usually pale brown, oblong, flat or slightly transversely plicate, densely and persistently pubescent, not glossy, prominently venose. Seeds 7-9.5 x 6.5-8.5 mm, flattened. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. |
| Albizia chinensis | Albizia chinensis is an unarmed, deciduous or evergreen tree with a flat, spreading crown, up to 30(-43) m tall and trunk up to 70(-140) cm in diameter; bark dark gray, rather smooth, densely hooped, lenticellate, thin; live bark 5 mm thick, pinkish-red. Branchlets slightly angular in the distal parts, terete, puberulous to tomentose, glabrescent. Leaves bipinnate; stipules auriculate, very prominent, 1-1.5 cm x 0.6-3 cm, caducous, pinkish-orange, pubescent, with filiform tail, base much dilated at one side; rachis stout, 10-25 cm long, lenticellate, sparsely and minutely tomentellous, glabrescent, with an elliptical, raised gland near the base of 2-3 mm x 1-1.5 mm; pinnae 4-14(-20) pairs, 4-14 cm long, puberulous to tomentose, glabrescent, with glands at the junctions of the 1 or 2 distal pairs of leaflets, narrowly elliptical to slit-like, concave, 1 mm long, glands sometimes absent; leaflets (10-)20-30(-45) pairs per pinna, opposite, sessile, thinly chartaceous, asymmetrically subulate, 6-10 mm x 1.5-3 mm, apex sharply acute, base obtuse, oblique, midrib close to the upper margin, sparsely sericeous or glabrous on either side. Inflorescence consisting of penduculate glomerules (heads) aggregated into terminal, yellow-green, tomentose to hirsute panicle; penducle 1-3 cm long, up to 5 in clusters, often with auriculate stipules at base; glomerule composed of 10-20 flowers; flowers pentamerous, dimorphic; in a glomerule the central flower is male, the marginal flowers are bisexual; calyx tubular to narrowly funnel-shaped, 2.5-5 mm long, tomentose to hirsute, ending in small triangular teeth; corolla funnel-shaped, 6-10 mm long, puberulous to hirsute especially on the lobes, lobes triangular-ovate, acute; stamens numerous, 2 cm long, at the base united into a tube as long as or slightly longer than the corolla tube; ovary glabrous, sessile. Pod thin, flat, strap-shaped, 6-20 cm x 2-3 cm, often with slightly sinuate margins, indehiscent or breaking irregularly, reddish or yellowish-brown, glossy, 8-12 seeded. Seed flattened ellipsoid, 7(-10) mm x 4-6 mm x 0.5-1 mm, dull dark brown, areole nearly circular, 1 mm in diameter. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. |
| Albizia coriaria | Albizia coriaria is a deciduous tree 6-36 m tall. Tree crown spreading and flat, trunk often twisted. Buttresses short and blunt. Bark gray-black, rough and raggedly scaling. Young branchlets hairy. Leaves bipinnate, pinnae 3-6 pairs, leaflets 6-11 pairs, oblong to elliptic 13-33 mm long, 5-17 mm wide, rounded at apex, subglabrous except for a few hairs on the midrib beneath. Flowers subsessile or on pedicels 0.5-2 mm long; bracteoles minute, 1.5-2 mm long usually falling off before flowering. Calyx 3.5-6.5 mm long, not slit unilaterally, puberulous outside, with few shortly stipitate glands. Corolla 8-13.5 cm long, white and puberulous outside. Fruit a pod 10-21 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, glabrous or nearly so, brown or purplish-brown in colour with a tapered or acute apex. A. coriaria is closely related to A. ferruginea and distinguishing between the two species is difficult. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. The specific epithet ‘coriaria’ describes the leathery texture of its upper leaf surfaces. |
| Albizia ferruginea | Albizia ferruginea is a tree, 6-40 m high with a beautiful spreading crown. Bole nearly straight; bark rough, thick, peeling off in older trees. Young branchlets densely rusty, pubescent or sometimes subtomentose. Slash light brown with reddish patches. Leaves bipinnate, consisting of 3-5 pinnae oppositely arranged, terminal pinnae; terminal pinnae pairs on the leaf stalk have 15-16 leaflets, which can grow up to 2cm long and 0.8 cm wide. Leaflets oblong, tip and base round; smooth on top and hairy underneath. Leaf indumentum red. Flowers greenish-cream in tight clusters, calyx 3-6 mm long covered with rusty hairs. Stamen numerous, filaments up to 5 cm, staminal tube not or scarcely exserted beyond corolla. Fruit a pod, 15-20 cm long and 4 cm wide, reddish-brown glossy and veined; containing 9-12 flattened seeds, seed 7-10 mm long and 4.5-8 mm wide. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. The specific epithet refers to the colour of the pods. |
| Albizia julibrissin | Albizia julibrissin is a small to medium-sized tree 6-9 m tall with a spreading crown. The bark is light brown, nearly smooth, and generally thin with lens shaped areas along the stem. Leaves large, up to 50 cm long, bipinnately compound with 10-35 pairs of leaflets, many oblong leaflets, each only 6-12 mm long by about 7.5-10 cm wide, and alternate along the stems. Leaves fold up under the night sky Flowers showy, fragrant pink, about 3.75 cm long, that resembling pompoms and are arranged in panicles at the ends of branches. Fruits are flat, straw-colored pods about 15 cm long containing light brown oval-shaped seeds about 1.25 cm in length. The generic name commemorates the Florentine nobleman Filippo degli Albizzi, who introduced the plant into cultivation in the middle of the 18th century. |
| Albizia odoratissima | Albizia odoratissima is a medium sized tree to 22(-40) m tall, diameter 120-150 cm, and a short trunk. Bark dark grey to light brown with horizontal lenticels. Crown spreading, relatively dense with drooping foliage. Branching habit uniform, but irregularities occur when the tree is damaged. Leaves dark green, bipinnately compound; rachis 7-20 cm long, bearing 1 lower gland 1-2 cm above the base, and 1 upper gland between the 2 distal pairs of pinnae; pinnae 3-5(-9) pairs, 7-14 cm long; per pinna, 10-16(-20) pairs of oblong to obovate leaflets, 1.1-3.5 cm x 0.6-1.2 cm. Inflorescence clustered into hairy terminal panicles 8-20 cm long; flowers 10-15 per head, dimorphic, pale yellowish white, fragrant. Pods thin, flat, 13-30 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm broad, leathery, brown when ripe, dehiscent, each containing 8-14 seeds. Seeds ovoid, 9 mm x 6 mm x 1.5 mm. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. |
| Albizia saman | Albizia saman is a conspicuous, semi-deciduous tree that can attain a height of 60 m, although it rarely exceeds 30 m and 4.5 m at DBH; crown dense, spreading, sometimes 30 m across; bole short, usually crooked, often with huge, widely spreading branches from low down. Bark distinctly grey-brown, yellow or cream-brown, smooth, becoming slightly to deeply fissured with age, peeling off in long, fibrous strips; slash yellowish-pink and fibrous beneath, exuding a brown gum; branches velvety. Leaves bipinnately compound, 15-40 cm long, velvety, with a circular gland at the base and usually between each of the pinnae; pinnae 4-6 opposite, 7-15 cm long, velvety, with small glands between most of the leaflets and a common stalk grooved on the upper surface; leaflets 4-8 pairs, opposite, progressively larger upwards, the end pair 4-5 cm long, 18-32 mm broad, unsymmetrical with the midrib curved inwards and the outer margin more curved than the inner; lower leaflets approximately in the shape of a parallelogram with the midrib running diagonally upwards, bright green, oblong, smooth, stalkless, finely hairy underside, almost glabrous topside, with prominent midribs and lateral nerves. Flowers white below, pink above, solitary or in small clusters in the leaf axils or clustered at the ends of shoots, forming subglobose heads are 5-7 cm wide, central flower different from the others, the heads on stalks 5-8 cm long; whole inflorescence finely hairy; stamens conspicuous. Pods more or less straight with conspicuously thickened edges, black or green and set in brownish pulp, 12-20 cm long, 1-2 cm long, 1.2 cm thick, indehiscent, containing numerous seeds embedded in the pulp. The genus was named after the 18th-century Florentine nobleman and naturalist Filippo del Albizzi, who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. The common name ‘rain tree’ comes from the observation that grass is often greener under the tree’s canopy. |
| Albizia versicolor | Albizia versicolor is a deciduous tree up to 20 m tall with a spreading rounded to flat crown. Bark on young branches covered with dense brownish to yellowish hairs, but corky, greyish brown and rough on older branches and stems. Leaves bi-pinnate, up to 30 cm long, with 1-3 pairs of leaflets, the top pair the largest, hairy, venation prominent and much raised below, margin smooth, new leaves soft and bright reddish brown, autumn leaves yellow. Flowers faintly, scented, in half-spherical heads, creamy white, stamens up to 4 cm long. Fruit a large pod, reddish brown when young but pale brown when mature, up to 27 cm long, thinly textured, with thickened margins. Albizia is named after F.de Albizzi, nobleman from Florence who brought an Asian species Albizia julibrissin into cultivation in Europe in 1749, and versicolor means variously coloured, referring to the leaves. |
| Albizia zygia | Albizia zygia is a deciduous tree 9-30 m tall with a spreading crown and a graceful architectural form. Bole tall and clear, 240 cm in diameter. Bark grey and smooth. Young branchlets densely to very sparsely clothed with minute crisped puberulence, usually soon disappearing but sometimes persistent. Leaves pinnate, pinnae in 2-3 pairs and broadening towards the apex, obliquely rhombic or obovate with the distal pair largest, apex obtuse, 29-72 by 16-43 mm, leaves are glabrous or nearly so. Flowers subsessile; pedicels and calyx puberulous, white or pink; staminal tube exserted for 10-18 mm beyond corolla. Fruit pod oblong, flat or somewhat transversely plicate, reddish-brown in colour, 10-18 cm by 2-4 cm glabrous or nearly so. The seeds of A. zygia are smaller (7.5-10 mm long and 6.5 to 8.5 mm wide) and flatter than either of the other Albizia, but have the characteristic round shape, with a slightly swollen center. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. |
| Aleurites moluccana | Aleurites moluccana is a medium-sized tree, up to 20 m tall, with wide-spreading or pendulous branches. Bark grey-brown, fairly smooth with fine vertical lines. Leaves simple, variable in shape, young leaves large, up to 30 cm long, palmate, with 3-7 acuminate lobes, shining; whitish above when young, becoming green with age, with rusty stellate pubescence beneath when young that persists on veins and petiole; leaves on mature trees ovate, entire, acuminate, long-petioled. Flowers in rusty-pubescent panicled cymes, 10-15 cm long; petals 5, dingy white or creamy, oblong, up to 1.3 cm long; ovary 2-celled. Fruit an indehiscent drupe, almost spherical, 5 cm or more in diameter, with thick, rough, hard shell making up 64-68% of fruit; difficult to separate from kernels; containing 1-2 hard-shelled black seeds. The generic name ‘Aleurites’ comes from a Greek word ‘aleuron’, meaning ‘floury’. The Hawaiians strung nuts on sticks and used them for lighting houses; this use of the kernels gave rise to the name ‘candle nut’. |
| 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. |
| Anthocephalus cadamba | Anthocephaluscadamba is a large tree with a broad crown and straight cylindrical bole. The tree: may reach a height of 45 m with trunk diameters of 100-(160) cm. The tree sometimes has small buttresses and a broad crown. The bark is gray, smooth in young trees, rough and longitudinally fissured in old trees. Leaves glossy green, opposite, simple more or less sessile to petiolate, ovate to elliptical (15-50 x 8-25 cm). Inflorescence in clusters; terminal globose heads without bracteoles, subsessile fragrant, orange or yellow flowers; Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, calyx tube funnel-shaped, corolla gamopetalous saucer-shaped with a narrow tube, the narrow lobes imbricate in bud. Stamens 5, inserted on the corolla tube, filaments short, anthers basifixed. Ovary inferior, bi-locular, sometimes 4-locular in the upper part, style exserted and a spindle-shaped stigma. Fruitlets numerous with their upper parts containing 4 hollow or solid structures. Seed trigonal or irregularly shaped. A. cadamba is closely allied to the subtribe Naucleinae (Rubiaceae) but differs from them in its placentation mode. The species is in the focus of a classification controversy based on the name of the original type specimen described by Lamarck. |
| Antiaris toxicaria | Antiaris toxicaria is a magnificent deciduous tree of the forest canopy, often 20- 40 m tall with a dome-shaped crown, drooping branchlets and hairy twigs. Large trees have clear boles and are butressed at the base. Bark smooth, pale gray, marked with lenticel dots and ring marks. When cut thin creamy latex drips out, becoming darker on exposure to air. Leaves variable, usually oval 5-16 cm x 4-11 cm, the upper half often widest to a blunt or pointed tip, the base unequal and rounded. Saplings and coppice shoots have long narrow leaves, the edge toothed- but rare in mature leaves. Mature leaves prominently veined. Leaves are rough, papery with stiff hairs above but softer below. Male flowers short-stalked, discoid head with many flowers, each flower with 2-7 tepals and 2-4 stamens, growing just below leaves. Female flowers in disc or kidney-shaped heads to 3 cm across. Ovary adnate to the perianth, 1-locular with a single ovule and 2 styles. Fruit bright red, ellipsoid, dull and furry, 1.5 cm long, the swollen receptacle contains just one seed. Some botanists have referred to all African specimens as the Asiatic species. However there appear to be 2 easily recognizable taxa in west Africa. Currently, A. toxicaria is regarded as a single species with 5 subspecies; subsp. toxicaria and macrophylla occur within the Malesian region. Other subspecies are africana, humbertii and welwitschii. The generic name is after the Malay plant name ‘antjar’, and the specific epithet comes from the Greek word ‘toxicon’-an arrow poison, alluding to its toxic properties. |
| Antidesma bunius | Antidesma bunius may be shrubby, 3-8 m high, or may reach up to 15-30 m. It has wide-spreading branches forming a dense crown. Leaves evergreen, alternate, oblong, pointed, 10-22.5 cm long, 5-7.5 cm wide, dark-green, glossy, leathery, with very short petioles. Flowers tiny, odorous, reddish, male and female on separate trees, the male in axillary or terminal spikes, the female in terminal racemes 7.5-20 cm long. Fruits round or ovoid, up to 8 mm across, borne in grape-like pendent clusters (often paired) and which are extremely showy because the berries ripen unevenly. Skin thin and tough but yields an abundance of bright-red juice which leaves a purple stain on fabrics, while the pulp, only 3 mm thick, is white with colorless juice. Whole fruits very acid, much like cranberries, when unripe, sub-acid and slightly sweet when fully ripe. Some tasters detect a bitter or unpleasant aftertaste, unnoticeable to others. There is a single, straw-colored, ridged or fluted very hard seed, 3cm long, 6 mm wide. The generic name Antidesma is derived from the Greek ‘anti’-against and ‘desma’-a band or constriction, alluding to its use as anti-snake venom in India. |
| Arbutus unedo | Arbutus unedo is an evergreen broadleaved shrub or small tree with a spreading habit, up to 12 m high, often much lower; rarely exceeding 2.5-3.7 m in the southeastern USA. Leaves simple, alternate, serrate, obovate, oblanceolate, pinnate, evergreen, 5 - 10 cm long, borne on 5mm long hairy pinkish stalks. The leathery leaves are glossy on top with red vein when young. Flowers hermaphrodite, bell-shaped small white or pinkish blueberry-like assembled in drooping panicles about 5 cm long and 8 mm in diameter with a soft honey scent. Fruit globose berries, covered in conical swellings, ripening through yellow to scarlet and deep crimson with mealy, edible pulp and about 2 cm in diameter; looks somewhat like strawberries though the resemblance does not apply to taste. Bark gray-brown; fissured, flaking and peeling in thin plates to reveal the reddish young bark beneath. Strawberry tree has a long taproot and therefore should not be transplanted once established, but thanks to that taproot it eventually becomes extremely drought hardy. The Latin name 'unedo' means 'I eat one (only)' and suggests that the fruit is not very palatable, though it also suggests the fruit is so delicious that a person only needs to eat one. |
| Artocarpus camansi | Artocarpus camansi is a moderately fast growing, single-stemmed, evergreen tree of 10-15 m or more with a trunk 1 m in diameter or larger, often growing to a height of 5 m before branching; a spreading canopy of diameter about half of the tree height and a more open branching structure than breadfruit (A. altilis) or dugdug (A. mariannensis). The tree forms buttresses at the base; roots spread and grow on or slightly below the surface. Sticky, white, milky latex is present in all parts of the tree. Leaves alternate, large, 40–60 cm long, moderately dissected with 4–6 pairs of lobes and sinuses cut half way to the midrib. New leaves on young trees can be 76 cm long or more; densely pubescent, with many white or reddishwhite hairs on upper and lower veins, lower leaf surface, and petiole. Blade is dull green with green veins. Two large green stipules enclose the bud, turning yellow before dehiscing. Flowers monoecious occuring at the ends of branches, with the male inflorescence appearing first. Male flowers are club-shaped, up to 3 cm in diameter and 25–35 cm long or longer. Female inflorescences consist of 1500–2000 reduced flowers attached to a spongy core. Unlike breadfruit, the individual flowers do not fuse together along their length. Fruit a large fleshy syncarp, oval or ovoid, 7-12 cm in diameter and weighs about 800 g; the skin dull green to green-yellow when ripe with a spiny texture from the pointed, flexible, long tips of the individual flowers; the scanty pulp yellow-whitish when ripe with a sweet aroma and taste. Seeds, 12-150 per fruit, rounded or flattened, about 2.5 cm long with a thin, light brown outer seed coat patterned with darker veins, weighs 7-10 g each and comprising 30-50% or more of the total fruit weight. Breadnut can be readily distinguished from its close relative, breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), by its very spiny fruits with little pulp and numerous large, light brown seeds. Artocarpus camansi has often been considered to be a form of seeded breadfruit. Breadfruit, however, is a separate species that originated from its wild seeded ancestor, breadnut. |
| Artocarpus lakoocha | Artocarpus lakoocha is a medium to large deciduous tree with a spreading crown, dropping its leaves for a short time at the beginning of the dry season. The bark is grey and the slash is deep red with milky latex. Leaves alternate, 10-25 cm long, elliptical, pointed and leathery. Flowers unisexual-male and female flowers in separate spherical heads but on the same tree. Male flowers are yellow-orange while the female are reddish. Fruit is a syncarp (the entire female inflorescence forms a fruit), irregularly rounded, green when young, turning yellow at the time of maturity, later brown. The size differs but the diameter is typically 5-10 cm while fruit weights 200-350 g. The number of seeds/fruit varies accordingly, but typically there are 10-30 per fruit. Seeds irregular and vary in size like the fruits. At maturity, most seeds are about one cm long, more or less flattened and pointed at the embryo end, the seed-coat is thin and white. The seeds contain sticky white latex. The generic name comes from the Greek words ‘artos’ (bread) and ‘karpos’ (fruit) while the species name is derived from the fruit’s common name in India. |
| Artocarpus mariannensis | Artocarpus altilis is a large evergreen, spreading canopy, single-trunked tree up to 20 m or more with buttressed trunks more than 2 m in diameter at the base often not branching below 5 m from the ground. The tree is shallow-rooted. Sticky white latex is present in all parts of the tree. The bark is smooth, brownish-gray, with new shoots purplish green. Leaves alternate, 15–30 cm long, broadly obovate to elliptic, typically entire or shallowly 1–3 lobed on the upper third of leaf. Blade is smooth, glossy, flexible, dark green with greenish-yellow veins and few hairs on upper veins. Two large green stipules enclose the bud and turn yellow before dehiscing. Flowers monoecious, occuring at ends of branches, with the male inflorescence appearing first. Male flowers club-shaped, up to 3 cm in diameter and 8–12 cm long. Thousands of tiny flowers with two anthers each are attached to a central spongy core. Female inflorescences consist of 1500–2000 reduced flowers attached to a spongy core. The flowers fuse together and develop into the fleshy, edible portion of the fruit. Fruit a small fleshy syncarp, cylindrical, kidney shaped or asymmetrical, about 15 cm long, about 500 g; skin dark green, even when mature, with a pebbly texture from the raised, flattened, hexagonal disks of individual flowers; pulp whitish-yellow when immature and deep yellow when ripe, with a sweet aroma and taste. Seeds large, dark brown, shiny, 1.5 cm long, with little or no endosperm, up to 15 per fruit. Artocarpus marianensis can be readily distinguished from breadfruit (A. altilis) by the small, typically entire leaves. The dark green, lumpy fruit is smaller and more asymmetrical than breadfruit, with a dark yellow pulp. Artocarpus camansi (breadnut, kamansi) has oblong, very spiny fruits with little pulp and numerous large, light brown seeds, and large, shallowly dissected leaves with 4–6 pairs of lobes. |
| Barringtonia procera | Cutnut is a medium-size fast growing, evergreen tree up to 24 m high but often range between 8-12 m with a crown diameter of 0.8–6 m and mature tree dbh of 2-45 cm. Cutnut produces a vigorous framework of branches following the formation of the terminal inflorescences. Leaves large, simple, lanceolate and arranged in a whorl at each node. Leaf size varies, typically measuring 21.5–66 cm long and 5–20 cm wide. The upper surface of the leaf is dark green and glossy; the lower surface is slightly paler. Typically, the leaf has a truncated base and an acuminated apex, with undulated margins. Inflorescence racemose with a 30–110 cm long pendulous spike containing up to 150 densely packed flower buds, arranged in spirally alternate pattern, and varying in colors, typically from green to white or red. Flowering is terminal on the shoots. Flower buds are semisessile to sessile and are protected by a calyx closed in the bud, which ruptures into two to four pseudolobes. Fruits multiple, sessile, elongated, oblong to obovoid, tapering toward the apex and base, and borne on a pendulous rachis. At maturity they are indehiscent, but the skin can be easily peeled off when ripe. Length of a mature fruit varies between 25–95 mm. Seed or kernel is contained in a fibrous, white to purplish, cylindrical, eight-sided endocarp shell (prominent when exocarp and mesocarp are removed). Bark smooth at early stages of growth but becomes fissured as the trees grow older. Large lenticels up to 5 mm across are present. The tree has a relatively shallow taproot and a well formed network of lateral roots, concentrated in the topsoil layer. |
| Bauhinia variegata | Bauhinia variegata is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree with a short bole and spreading crown, attaining a height of up to 15 m and diameter of 50 cm. In dry forests, the size is much smaller. The bark is light brownish grey, smooth to slightly fissured and scaly. Inner bark is pinkish, fibrous and bitter. The twigs are slender, zigzag; when young, light green, slightly hairy, and angled, becoming brownish grey. Leaves have minute stipules 1-2 mm, early caducous; petiole puberulous to glabrous, 3-4 cm; lamina broadly ovate to circular, often broader than long, 6-16 cm diameter; 11-13 nerved; tips of lobes broadly rounded, base cordate; upper surface glabrous, lower glaucous but glabrous when fully grown. Flower clusters (racemes) are unbranched at ends of twigs. The few flowers have short, stout stalks and a stalklike, green, narrow basal tube (hypanthium). The light green, fairly hairy calyx forms a pointed 5-angled bud and splits open on 1 side, remaining attached; petals 5, slightly unequal, wavy margined and narrowed to the base; 5 curved stamens; very slender, stalked, curved pistil, with narrow, green, 1-celled ovary, style and dotlike stigma. Pods dehiscent, strap-shaped, obliquely striate, 20-30 by 2-25 cm; long, hard, flat with 10-15 seeds in each; seeds brown, flat, nearly circular with coriaceus testa. The generic name commemorates the Bauhin brothers Jean (1541-1613) and Gaspard (1560-1624), Swiss botanists. The two lobes of the leaf exemplify the two brothers. The specific name refers to the variegation of the flowers. |
| Blighia sapida | Blighia sapida may reach 13 m high, has a spreading crown and ribbed branchlets. Leaflets 2-5 pairs, the upper ones largest, obovate. Leaves oblong or sub-elliptic, acute to rounded base, 3-18 cm long, 2-8.5 cm broad, pubescent on the nerves beneath. Flowers bisexual, aromatic and greenish white in colour, borne on densely pubescent axillary racemes, 5-20 cm long. Fruit capsule shaped, leather like pods contain a seed in each of 3 chambers or sections. A thick fleshy stalk, rich in oil, holds the seeds. When ripe, the fruit sections split and the seed becomes visible. The fruit turns red on reaching maturity and splits open with continued exposure to the sun. Seeds shiny black with a large yellow or whitish aril. The generic name Blighia honours Captain William Bligh who introduced the plant to the English scientific community at Kew in 1793. The specific epithet is in reference to the presence of substances in its seeds which turn water soapy or frothy. |
| Bombacopsis quinata | Bombacopsis quinata reaches a height of 40 m and a trunk diameter of more than 1 m in natural stands. Its most distinguishing features are its spiny main stem, fluted base, a rather wide spreading crown of heavy branches and a somewhat irregular bole inclined to be buttressed and completely clothed with heavy prickles towards the base; bark pale greyish-brown, trunk and branches generally covered by hard, stout spines up to 2 cm long; degree of spininess is extremely variable, as some trees are completely spineless. Leaves alternate, palmate and composite, with 3-5 oblong or obovate glabrous leaflets. Fruit a woody 5-valved capsule that upon bursting frees soft brown vegetable wool enclosing 30-120 small, brown seeds. |
| Boswellia serrata | Boswellia serrata is a moderate-sized to large, deciduous tree with a light, spreading crown and somewhat drooping branches. It usually has a short bole, 3-5 m in length, sometimes longer if grown in a fully stocked forest. Ordinarily, it attains a girth of 1.2-1.8 m and a height of 9-15 m. Bark is very thin, greyish-green, ashy or reddish with a chlorophyll layer beneath the thin outer layer, which peels off in thin, papery flakes. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, imparipinnate, 20-45 cm in length, crowded towards the ends of the branches; leaflets 17-31 cm, opposite, 2.5-8 cm x 0.8-1.5 cm, basal pairs often smallest, sessile, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, crenate, very variable in size. Flowers white, in stout racemes, 10-20 cm long, shorter than the leaves, crowded towards the ends of branches, but not terminal. Calyx persistent, pubescent outside, 5 to 7-toothed; teeth small, deltoid. Petals 5-7 erect, free, 0.5 cm long. Fruits 1.3 cm long, trigonous, with three valves and three heart-shaped, 1-seeded pyrenes, winged, along with the margins. The specific name, serrata, comes from serra (a saw) referring to the toothed leaf-margins. |
| Broussonetia papyrifera | B. papyrifera is a small tree or shrub which grows naturally in Asian and pacific countries (Thailand, China, Myanmar, Laos, Japan, Korea). It grows to 21 m high and 70 cm dbh, with a round and spreading crown. The spreading, grey-brown branches, marked with stipular scars are brittle, making it susceptible to wind damage. The bark is light grey, smooth, with shallow fissures or ridges. Leaves alternate or sub-opposite, mulberry-like and papery. Some leaves are distinctly deep lobed, while others are un-lobed and several different shapes of leaves may appear on the same shoot. Petioles are 3-10 cm long while stipules are 1.6-2.0 cm long. Male flower 3.5-7.5 cm long, yellowish-white, with pendulous catkin-like spikes; perianth campanulate, hairy, 4-fid, and its segments are valvate. Female flowers in rounded clusters, globose pedunculate heads about 1.3 cm in diameter; persistent, hairy, clavate bracts subtend flowers. Fruit shiny-reddish, fleshy, globose and compound with the achenes 1-2 cm long and wide hanging on long fleshy stalks. The genus name ‘Broussonetia’ is named after P.N.V. Broussonet, a French naturalist, who took a male tree from a garden in Scotland and introduced it to Paris where a female tree was growing, thus enabling fruit to be described. |
| Caesalpinia spinosa | Caesalpinia spinosa is a shrub or small tree up to 5 m high with reflexed prickles along its spreading spinose grey-barked densely leafy branches. Leaves bipinnate, smooth or with sparse, short prickles; pinnae 2-3 pairs, often 10 mm long, with about 8 pairs of subsessile, firm, reticulate-veined, oblong-elliptic, glabrous leaflets, oblique at base, rounded at apex, about 2.5 cm long, 1 cm broad. Flowers reddish-yellow, in narrow racemes 8-12 cm long; pedicels puberulent, 5 mm long, auriculate below the short calyx tube; larger calyx segments serrulate, about 6 mm long, the petals less than twice as long, about as long as the stamens. Pods red, flat, 10 cm long, 2.5 cm broad, 4-7 seeded. Seeds large, round and black at maturity. The generic name is after A. Caesalpini, 1519-1603, Italian physician and botanist. The specific epithet refers to the fact that it bears prickles. |
| Cassia fistula | Cassia fistula is a medium sized deciduous tree, 10 m tall with a straight trunk to 5 m, 1 m diameter and spreading branches. Stem bark pale grey, smooth and slender when young and dark brown and rough when old. Leaves alternate, pinnate, 30-40 cm long, with 4-8 pairs of ovate leaflets, 7.5-15 cm long, 2-5 cm broad, entire, the petiolules 2-6 mm long. Flowers bright yellow in terminal, drooping racemes, 30-60 cm long; calyx oblong, obtuse, pubescent; corolla with five subequal, obovate, shortly clawed petals, to 3.5 cm across; stamens 10, upper three with erect filaments to 0.7 cm long and with basifixed anthers; lower three curved and filaments with dorsifixed anthers and the median four stamens with erect filaments, to 1 cm long and with versatile, curved anthers; pistil sessile or stalked, ovary pubescent, style to 0.5 cm long and with terminal stigma. Fruit an indehiscent pod, 40-60 cm long by 1-2 cm diameter, cylindrical, pendulous and terete, containing 25-100 seeds. The pod develops numerous transverse septa between the seeds. When fresh the pods contain a black pulp which on drying adheres to the septa. Seeds lenticular, light brown and lustrous. The generic name is from the Greek name 'kassia'. |
| Celtis australis | Celtis australis is a medium to large-sized deciduous tree with straight stem up to 25 m tall and 60 cm dbh; crown spreading; bark bluish-grey, smooth or with horizontal wrinkles when older; branchlets and twigs smooth and greenish-grey. Leaves alternate, obliquely ovate to lanceolate, 7-13 cm long and 3-7 cm wide, base serrate or sometimes smooth, strongly 3-neved. Flowers small, greenish, in axillary shoots on year-old twigs. Fruits a drupe, ovoid or cylindrical, 6-12 mm long, yellow then purple or black, fleshy with one white seed. |
| 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. |
| Colophospermum mopane | Colophospermum mopane reaches 25 m in height, sometimes more; the bark is rough, dark grey, longitudinally fissured with wide-spreading branches. Leaves resemble butterflies or camel footprints; composed of 2 asymmetric leaflets, each with a straight inner margin and a curved outer margin, kidney-shaped, 3 x 6 cm. Leaves form a cordate base, 4.5-10 x 1.5-5 cm, with transparent dots when held to the light, and with nerves that are prominent on both surfaces. Stipules inconspicuous, caducous. Inflorescence racemose, slender and spikelike; flowers small, flower stalks 4-8 mm long; sepals 4; petals none; stamens about 20. Pods asymmetrical, more or less kidney shaped, deeply and irregularly furrowed; with many reddish, sticky resin glands. The name of this monospecific genus is based on Greek words meaning ‘oily seed’ and refers to the very pronounced turpentine smell of the oil contained in the seeds. Colophon in Ionia was celebrated for its resin; it was the birthplace of Homer, so the name links this African genus with one of the world’s great heroic stories. The specific name, ‘mopane’, is derived from a Bantu common name for the tree. |
| 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. |
| Cordia dichotoma | Cordia dichotoma is a small to moderate-sized deciduous tree with a short bole and spreading crown. The stem bark is greyish brown, smooth or longitudinally wrinkled. Flowers are short-stalked, bisexual and white in colour, appear in loose corymbose cymes. The fruit is a yellow or pinkish-yellow shining globose or ovoid drupe seated in a saucer-like enlarged calyx. It turns black on ripening and the pulp gets viscid. The hard stone is 1-4 seeded. The generic name honours a 16th century German botanist, Valerius Cordus. The specific epithet means having divisions always in pairs. |
| Crossopteryx febrifuga | Crossopteryx febrifuga is a deciduous savanna tree 1.8-15 m tall, with a rounded crown and pendulous branchlets. Bark pale grey to dark brown, scaly, finely reticulate; young stems glabrous to densely hairy pubescent. Young leaves tender green. Leaf blades elliptic, elliptic-oblong, ovate, obovate or almost round, 1.5-13.5 cm long, 1.2-7.5 cm wide, rounded to shortly acuminate at the apex, broadly cuneate to rounded at the base, glabrous to densely pubescent or velvety; petioles 0.5-1.8 cm long; stipules 2-3 mm long, acuminate. Inflorescences dense and strongly fragrant, 6-10 cm long; peduncles up to 6 cm long. Calyx tube 1 mm long; lobes elliptic to linear, 0.5-1.5 mm long, obtuse or acute. Corolla creamy white or pale yellow, densely pubescent outside; tube tinged pink, 5-11 mm long; lobes round 1.5 mm long and wide. Style exserted for 3-5 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mmm wide. Fruit globose, dark purple or black, 6-10 mm across. Crossopteryx is a monospecific African genus with a wide distribution. The generic epithet is derived from Greek “krossoi” and “pteron” meaning fringed wing and is based on its seed shape. The specific epithet febrifuga relates to its medical use in fever treatment. |
| Croton macrostachyus | Croton macrostachyus is a deciduous tree 3-25 m high, although more commonly 6-12 m; crown rounded and open with large spreading branches. Bark pale gray or gray-brown, finely reticulate, fairly smooth, finely fissured with age; slash reddish; shoots densely and shortly hairy. Leaves large, green, turning to orange before falling, ovate, base subcordate or rounded, apex acuminate, margin crenulate-serrulate or subentire, 5-19 x 3.5-15 cm, stellate hairy but more densely so beneath on long stems crowded at the ends of branchlets; veins prominent with 2 stalked glands just visible at the base of the leaf, paler below due to soft hairs; texture more or less furry, margin slightly toothed. Flowers creamy to yellow-white, sweetly scented, to 3 mm long, dioecious or at least on separate shoots, in erect spikes, all over the tree, sometimes a few females accompanying the males, appearing only briefly with the flower spike turning down as fruits mature. Male inflorescence up to 25 cm long, flowers pedicellate. Female inflorescence usually less than 10 cm long and subsessile. Fruits green when young, turning grey at maturity, on drooping spikes to 30 cm long, 3-lobed, 8-9 x 8-10 mm, stellate-pubescent covered at 1 end by a soft, creamy envelope. Fruits mature when still on the tree, splitting open with a sharp noise to release seeds. Each pea-sized capsule contains 3 shiny grey seeds with a soft, cream aril. The generic name is derived from the appearance of the seed, for ‘croton’ is based on the Greek word for a tick. The specific epithet is from the Greek macro- (large) and –stachyus (relating to a spike) hence “with a large spike”. |
| Dactyladenia barteri | Dactyladenia barteri is a climbing shrub or small tree, up to 12 m tall; bole fluted, often multiple, crooked, up to 25(-40) cm in diameter; bark brittle, slash thin and watery white, turning reddish; crown dense, spreading. Young shoots dark red, covered with whitish arachnoid tomentum, early caducous; branches more or less scandent, slender, hispid, and very quickly glabrescent when young, with numerous lenticels when old. Leaves alternate, simple; stipules often attached near the base of the petiole, linear, 4-6 mm long; petiole 3-4 mm long; blade elliptical-oblong to ovate, 7-13(-15) cm x 3-5.5(-7) cm, dark glossy green, turning reddish-brown when senescent, base acuminate, sometimes broadly acuminate and somewhat asymmetrical, apex acuminate; lateral veins in 4-6 pairs, some circular glands often present on the underside of the blade near the base and apex. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary raceme, single or sometimes in pairs, 3-4(-12) cm long, puberulous, many flowered; peduncle up to 1(-4) cm long; bracts elliptical-lanceolate, 2-4 mm long, tricuspidate, often with circular glands; pedicel articulated; flowers bisexual, zygomorphic; receptacal tubular, 4-6 mm long, puberulous; sepals 5, 4-5 mm long, puberulous outside; petals 5, oblong-obovoid, white, caducous; stamens 15-20, 25 mm long; pistil with 1-locular ovary, a filiform style slightly longer than the stamens, and a 3-lobed stigma. Fruit a single-seeded drupe, compressed-ovoid, 2.5 cm x 3.5 cm x 5 cm, green, surface often ferruginous-tomentose, apex often slightly tuberculate. |
| Dalbergia sissoo | Dalbergia sissoo is a medium to large-sized deciduous tree, growing up to 30 m in height and 80 cm dbh under favourable conditions. Crown wide spreading and thin. Bark thin, grey, longitudinally furrowed, exfoliating in narrow strips. Develops a long taproot from an early age, and numerous lateral ramifying roots. The leaves are imparipinate; leaflets 3-5, alternate, 2.5-3.6 cm in diameter, broad ovate, acuminate, glabrescent, petiolules 3-5 mm long. Flowers 5-8 mm long, pale white to dull yellow, racemes 2.5-3.7 cm long in short axillary panicles. Pods 5-7.5 cm x 8-13 mm, narrowed at the base, indehiscent, glabrous, with 1-4 seeds. Seeds 6-8 x 4-5 mm, kidney shaped, thin and flat, light brown. The generic name Dalbergia honours the Swedish brothers Nils and Carl Dalberg, who lived in the 18th century. The former was a botanist and the latter explored Surinam. |
| Delonix elata | Delonix elata is a deciduous tree about 2.5-15 m tall, with a spreading, rather rounded crown, crooked poor stem form and drooping branches. Bark smooth, shining; sometimes flaking. Leaves 3-6 or more, bipinnate; pinnae usually 4-6 pairs; leaflets 10-14 pairs, oblong or oblanceolate-oblong, 0.6-1.2 cm long. Leaflets 1.25-4 mm wide, smaller than those of D. regia. Flowers in terminal corymbs; stalks pubescent, lowest flowers stalks longest. Flowers open one at a time. Sepals 1.8 cm long, with a broadly ovate or rotundate-cuneate lamina narrowing into a distinct claw. Petals rounded in outline and crisped on margins 1.6-3.8 cm long, 1.8-4.2 cm wide; upper one smaller than rest, pale yellow; the remainder white; later all turning apricot. Staminal filaments pale brown or reddish, hairy at the base, 5-10 cm long; pedicels up to 3.75 cm. Ovary pubescent or tomentose all over. Pods red-brown or purple-brown, up to 20 cm long and smooth, compressed elliptic-oblong. The genera comprises of 3 tropical species. D. elata is a varied species, two variants are recognized in east Africa. Delonix is from the Greek word “delos”, meaning evident and “onux”, a claw in allusion to the shape of the petals; the epithet “elata” means lofty or tall. |
| Delonix regia | Delonix regia is a tree 10-15 (max. 18) m high, attaining a girth of up to 2 m; trunk large, buttressed and angled towards the base; bark smooth, greyish-brown, sometimes slightly cracked and with many dots (lenticels); inner bark light brown; crown umbrella shaped, spreading with the long, nearly horizontal branches forming a diameter that is wider than the tree’s height; twigs stout, greenish, finely hairy when young, becoming brown. Roots shallow. Leaves biparipinnate, alternate, light green, feathery, 20-60 cm long; 10-25 pairs of pinnae, 5-12 cm long, each bearing 12-40 pairs of small oblong-obtuse leaflets that are about 0.5-2 cm long and 0.3 cm wide; petiole stout. The numerous leaflets are stalkless, rounded at the base and apex, entire thin, very minutely hairy on both sides, green on the upper surface. At the base of the leaf stalk, there are 2 compressed stipules that have long, narrow, comblike teeth. Corymbs 15-30 cm long, borne laterally near the end of the twig, each with loosely arranged, slightly fragrant flowers; flowers 5-13 cm across, with 5 equal petals, on slender stalks 5-7.6 cm long. Petals 5-6.5 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, orbicular, broadly spoon shaped, rounded but broader than long, slightly wavy-margined or crisp, tapering into claws about 2.5 cm long, widely extended and bending backwards before falling. Petals 4, orange-red, almost scarlet, 1 longer and narrower than the others, whitish inside with red spots and streaks; stalk very long, slender and hairy. Sepals 5, thick, green outside and reddish with yellow border within, reflexed when the flowers open, pointed, finely hairy, about 2.5 cm long. Stamens 5 with 10 red filaments; pistil has a hairy 1-celled ovary about 1.3 cm long and slender style about 3 cm long. Fruit green and flaccid when young, turning to dark brown, hard, woody pods, 30-75 cm long, 3.8 cm thick, 5-7.6 cm broad, ending in a short beak when mature, with many horizontally partitioned seed chambers inside, indehiscent, finally splitting into 2 parts. The conspicuous pods hang down and remain attached most of the year even when the trees are leafless. Seeds 30-45, hard, greyish, glossy, to 2 cm long, oblong and shaped very much like date seeds, transversely mottled with a bony testa. They are arranged at right angles to the length of the pod. The generic name, ‘Delonix’, is derived from a Greek delos (visible), and onyx (claw), in allusion to the conspicuously clawed petals. The specific name, ‘regia’, is from the Latin word ‘regis’ (royal, regal, magnificent). Most of its common names are derived from its large, flame-red flowers. |
| 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. |
| Entada abyssinica | Entada abyssinica is a small to medium-sized, deciduous tree, 3-15 m high, with a flat, spreading crown; bark grey to reddish, slightly fissured, flaking off in irregular patches; slash pink with streaks of red; branchlets pendulous, glabrous or sometimes pubescent. Leaves alternate, bipinnate, stipules absent; pinnae 1-22 pairs; leaflets 15-55 pairs, mostly linear-oblong, 13-14 x 1-4 mm; apex round to slightly obtuse and slightly mucronate, appressed, pubescent above and below, or sometimes glabrous above, rarely entirely glabrous; petiole glandular. Inflorescence 1-4 axillary racemes, 7-16 cm (including the 4-15 mm peduncle); flowers creamy white or fading yellowish, sweet scented. Fruit a large, flat legume, 15-39 x 3-9 cm, subcoriaceous, straight or nearly so, with no conspicuous seed segments; seeds oval, flat, 10-13 x 8-10 mm; pod splitting between each seed, leaving the pod rim and forming a wing for the seeds. E. abyssinica superficially resembles an acacia tree, from which it can be distinguished by its bipinnate leaves and the absence of thorns. The name ‘Entada’ is derived from an East Indian vernacular name. The specific name means ‘from Ethiopia’. |
| Entada africana | Entada africana is a small tree up to 4-10 m in height and 90 cm in girth; branching low down, with a wide crown; bark brown-grey to black, very rough, transversely striped, scaly, peeling in long fibrous strips, slash fibrous, red or yellow-brown. Leaves bipinnate, alternate, 3-9 pairs, with a glabrous common stalk 15-45 cm; rachis 25-30 cm long with 2-9 pairs of pinnae; 8-24 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets 2-3 x 0.5-1.5 cm, elongated elliptic with the apex rounded and occasionally minutely notched, the base asymmetrical with the lower edge more rounded than the upper; midrib and nerves distinct on both surfaces. Flowers creamy-white or reddish-yellow, about 6 mm long, slightly scented, densely clustered in spike-like racemes 5-15 cm long including the short central stalk; spikes solitary or in small clusters in the leaf axils or arranged in panicles at the ends of shoots, 1-4. Sepals glabrous, small, 5-lobed; petals 3 x 1 mm, spatulate; 10 free stamens. Fruit is a pod, 15-40 x 5-8 (15) cm, very persistent, hanging down untidily for many months and eventually breaking up on the tree, very flat and fragile (papery), with the seeds showing through, straight or slightly curved, with thick wavy margins, red-brown on the outside; breaking open with segments of the dry interior part of the pod, containing 10-15 broad elliptic flat seeds about 12 mm long; on breaking up, the outer coat of each segment of the pod peels off, the straw-coloured inner coat remaining attached to the seed and acting as a wing. Seeds 2-winged. |
| Enterolobium cyclocarpum | Enterolobium cyclocarpum is one of the largest trees in the dry forest formation, reaching up to 40 m in height and 3 m in diameter, with a huge, spreading crown. Older E. cyclocarpum trees develop small buttresses and produce large roots that run along the surface of the ground for 2-3 m. Sidewalks, roads, or foundations may be cracked or raised by E. cyclocarpum trees growing close by. The bipinnate compound leaves of E. cyclocarpum have 5 opposite leaflets. The small white flowers occur in compact, round heads. Seeds contained in distinctive, thickened, contorted, indehiscent pods that resemble an ear in form; seed 20 x 15 mm, ovate, compressed, dull, reddish-brown, with 100% pleurogram, marked with a yellowish band on each face, punctiform apical hilium concealed or not by whitish funicle; adult trees produce about 2000 pods, each with 10-16 seeds. |
| Erythrina edulis | Erythrina edulis is a leafy tree growing up to 14 m tall with stem diameter up to 37 cm and crown diameter up to 7 m. The stem and branches are covered with stout prickles. Leaves alternate, trifoliate with long petioles and two nectar-producing glands at the base of each leaflet. Flower cluster (raceme), supported on a stout stalk, consists of 180-200 short-stalked flowers arranged in threes around the axis. The flowers have a reddish-green calyx and a crimson corolla with an upper petal (standard) and two lateral petals forming the keel. The pistil is surrounded by 10 stamens. The two-petaled flowers face upward, forming a large cup in which nectar gathers. Fruits hang in bunches of 9 and 18 cylindrical pods. Pod size varies widely, but averages 32 cm long and 3 cm in diameter with six seeds. The seed coat is generally brownish-red but is sometimes yellow or black. Erythrina comes from the Greek word ‘eruthros’-red, alluding to the showy red flowers of the Erythrina species. |
| Erythrina fusca | Erythrina fusca is a medium to large spreading tree, reaching 10-15 (max. 26) m tall; crown rounded; trunk short, spiny (spines 1-2 cm long), much branched, sometimes buttressed to 2 m; bark brownish-grey or olive-brown, flaky; branches spreading, spiny; branchelets stout, spineless or aculeate. Leaves alternate, trifoliate; stipules and stipels orbicular, caducous; petiole up to 25 cm long, sometimes sparsely prickly; rachis up to 5 cm long, petiolule up to 1.5 cm; leaflets ovate to elliptical. Inflorescence racemose, terminal, appearing when leaves are present, with pale brick-red or salmon flowers in fascicles scattered along the rachis, covered with deciduous, ferruginous hairs, mostly unarmed peduncle up to 13 cm long; rachis 8-30 cm long; pedicel up to 2 cm long; stamens 10, 4-6 cm long, 1 free, 9 united in lower half into staminal tube; pistil 4-6 cm long; ovary densely pubescent. Fruit a woody, linear compressed pod, dehiscent, slightly constricted between 3-15 seeds; stipe stout, 1.5 cm long; beak 2 cm long, velvety, ferruginously hairy when young, later glabrescent; seeds oblong-ellipsoid, 12-18 x 5-8 mm, dark brown or black. Erythrina comes from the Greek word ‘eruthros’-red, alluding to the showy red flowers of the Erythrina species. The specific name, ‘fusca’, is a Latin word for tawny or brownish-grey. |
| Erythrina poeppigiana | Erythrina poeppigiana is a large tree, growing to 35 m in height and 2 m in diameter. The crown is moderately spreading and the bole tends to be branchless below 10-20 m. Bark is greyish brown or grey, with thornlike protuberances. Leaves are alternate, trifoliolate; folioles rhomboid-oval or oval, 15-25 cm long, generally larger in saplings than in big trees; glandular stipules below the paired lateral folioles, large and cup shaped. Flowers caducous, orange or reddish, produced in racemes; racemes 10-20 cm long; petals 5; stamens 10; anthers brown; upper petal wide and open. Pods 12-25 cm long, with several seeds, falcate, slightly depressed between seeds, long stalked, pointed at both ends; seeds brown, about 2 cm long, slightly curved, 1-2 cm long, weighing about 183 g each. Erythrina comes from the Greek word ‘eruthros’-red, alluding to the showy red flowers of the Erythrina species. |
| Erythrina sandwicensis | Erythrina sandwicensis is a small deciduous tree 5-15 m tall with a short, stout, crooked or gnarled trunk, 30-90 cm in diameter. Branches spreading, stiff, crown broad, thin, wider than it is high. Bark smooth, light to reddish brown, becoming slightly fissured and thin with age; with scattered stout grey or black spines up to 1 cm long. Twigs stout, green with yellow hairs when young and scattered blackish spines. Leaves alternate, compound, 13-30 cm long, with a long slender leafstalk. Leaflets three, short-stalked; terminal leaflet larger than the other two. Leaflets are 4-10 cm long and 6-15 cm wide. Flower racemes hairy, yellow, stalk up to 7.4 cm. Flowers crowded in a mass, 7.5-15 cm long and short stalked. Flower color may be orange, yellow, salmon, green and white. Pods approximately 10 cm long and 13 cm broad, flattened, pointed at both ends; containing 1-4 seeds, blackish and slightly narrowed between seeds. Seeds elliptical, shiny red orange 13-15 mm long. Erythrina comes from the Greek word ‘eruthros’-red, alluding to the showy red flowers of the Erythrina species. |
| Eucalyptus grandis | Eucalyptus grandis attains a height of 45-55 m, usually with an excellent trunk and a wide-spreading, rather thin crown; most of the bark and branches are smooth, white or silvery, sometimes greenish, rough on lower stem, smooth above, debark easily. Juvenile leaves are petiolate, opposite for several pairs then alternate, ovate up to 16 x 8.5 cm, green to dark green and slightly wavy; adult leaves are petiolate, alternate, stalked, lanceolate to broad lanceolate, up to 15 x 3 cm, green on topside and pale green on underside, slightly wavy, with a long point. Inflorescence axillary and simple, 7 flowered; peduncules flattened, to 1.8 cm long; buds have a bluish bloom. Fruit or seed capsules several, short stalked, pear shaped or conical, slightly narrowed at the rim, thin, 8 x 6 mm, with whitish waxy coating, narrow sunken disc, and 4-6 (commonly 5) pointed, thin teeth, slightly projecting and curved inward, persisting on twigs. 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 name, ‘grandis’, is Latin word for ‘large’ or ‘great’. |
| Eugenia stipitata | Eugenia stipitata is an ornamental leafy tree or shrub, 3-15 m tall, of densely branched habit, without apical dominance; stem with brown to reddish-brown; bark flaking; young branches covered with short, velvety, brown hairs that are lost with age. Leaves opposite, simple, without stipule; petiole short, 3 mm long; blade ovate to somewhat broadly elliptic, 8-19 cm long, 3.5-9.5 wide; apex acuminate; base rounded and often subcordate; margins entire; leaves dull, dark green above, with 6-10 pairs of impressed lateral veins; pale green, shortly pilose, with scattered hairs below. Inflorescence racemose pedicles long; bracteoles linear, 1-2 mm long; calyx lobes rounded, broader than long, overlapping in bud; petals 5, white, obovate, 7-10 mm long, 4 mm wide, ciliate; stamens about 70, 6 mm long; ovary (3 min.) 4 locular, each locule with 5-8 ovules; style 5-8 mm long. Fruit an oblate or spherical berry, 2-10 x 2-12 cm, weighing 50-750 g, light green at first, turning pale or orange yellow when ripe, soft, with a thin, velvety skin enclosing a juicy, thick pulp that accounts for as much as 60% of the fresh fruit. There are approximately 12 seeds in each fruit. The genus was named after Francois Eugene, Prince of Savoy (1663-1736), an Austrian general who, with Marlborough, won the Battle of Blenheim and was a distinguished patron of art, science and literature. |
| Faidherbia albida | Faidherbia albida is one of the largest thorn trees, reaching 30 m in height, with spreading branches and a rounded crown. Bark rough and dark brown, or smooth and greenish-grey; young branches white to ashy grey and characteristically zigzag in shape. Stipules spinescent, straight, about 2 cm long, creamy coloured with brown tips. Slash fibrous, pink to light brown. The roots can grow to 40 m deep. Leaves with 3-10 pairs of pinnae, each bearing 6-23 pairs of leaflets; leaflets quite large, 3.5-9 x 0.7-3 mm, grey-green. Modified spiny stipules at the base of the leaves, thickened at the base, straight and robust. (The basal thickening is a characteristic distinguishing this species from the acacias with long thorns like A. tortilis ssp. raddiana, A. nilotica and A. seyal). Flowers in slender, creamy white spikes, 4-14 cm long. Calyx 1-1.7 mm long, glabrous to pubescent with 5 sepals. Corolla 3-3.5 mm long with 5 free petals. Fruit is an unusual pod, bright orange to reddish-brown, thick, indehiscent, characteristically and conspicuously curled and twisted; large, up to 25 x 5 cm. Each pod contains 10-29 dark brown, ovoid, shiny seeds each measuring 10 x 6.0 mm and separated by thin septum. The seed coat is tough, leathery and waterproof. The specific epithet ‘albida’ means somewhat whitish, referring to the colour of the stem. The generic name honours Major LLC Faidberbe, governor of Senegal around 1854. |
| 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. |
| Ginkgo biloba | Ginkgo biloba belongs to single plant division Ginkgopsida which consists of the single order Ginkgoales, a single family Ginkgoaceae and a single extant genus Ginkgo. The tree is deciduous reaching a height of 4 m, with a reddish bark. Male specimens show an upright and irregular form, female trees are low and spreading. Leaves fan-shaped glossy green (resembling those of the maidenhair fern or Adiantum), with irregularly toothed upper margins. Numerously veined, with a split in the middle and therefore appears to have two lobes. The leaves turn golden yellow before they fall. The flowers are rather inconspicuous and grow on short spurs.Trees flower after 20-35 years, females exhibiting an abundance of ovules in pairs on stalks each containing an egg cell, initially very green, but later turning greenish-yellow, then orange and brown. The male flowers are yellow catkin-like pollen cones (microsporangia), 3-6 on each short shoot in the spring. A single naked ovule ripens into a drupe-like seed with an acrid, ill-smelling fleshy outer layer and a thin, smooth, horny inner layer. The fleshy-coated seeds silvery are frequently incorrectly designated as fruits or nuts. The generic name Ginkgo comes from the Chinese (later also Japanese) word ginkyo meaning 'silver apricot'. The specific name biloba means two-lobed: bi from the Latin 'bis' meaning double and 'loba' meaning leaf, which is an obvious reference to the fan-shaped leaves which have a split in the middle. |
| Gleditsia triacanthos | Gleditsia triacanthos attains a normal height of 15-25 (50) m and 0.5-1 (max. 1.8) m diameter. Trees have a short bole and open, narrow or spreading crown, bark reddish-brown to black, scaly, ridged, often covered in clusters of large, branched thorns. It has a strong taproot and a profusely branched root system. Leaves deciduous, alternate, singly or doubly pinnately compound. Those singly compound form early on dwarf shoots or toward the base of the long shoots; bear 14-30 leaflets (no terminal leaflet) on a central stalk 15-20 cm long; preformed in buds. Those doubly compound bear 4-7 pairs of branches, each resembling a singly compound leaf; neoformed during the growing season. Leaflets 25-40 mm long, widest near the base; tip rounded, often with a small point; sometimes minutely toothed. Flowers greenish-white, regular, small, about 5 mm across. The male and female flowers on the same tree, often on separate branches. Perfect flowers may also be present. Pollen flowers in many-flowered clusters (racemes) 5-7 cm long. Seed flowers in few-flowered clusters 7-9 cm long. Fruit 15-40 cm long pods, flat, curved, twisted, brownish; husk leathery; falling in winter without opening. Seeds beanlike; with a hard, impermeable seed coat; 0.5-1.5 cm long, dark brown, smooth. The generic name, sometimes spelt Gleditschia, commemorates the German botanist Johan Gottlieb Gleditsch (1714-1786), professor and director of the Berlin Botanic Garden. The specific name ‘tricanthos’ means 3-thorned; from the Greek ‘treis’ (three) and ‘akantha’ (a spine). |
| Gmelina arborea | Gmelina arborea is an unarmed, moderately sized to large deciduous tree with a straight trunk. It is wide spreading with numerous branches forming a large shady crown, attains a height of 30 m or more and a diameter of up to 4.5 m. Bark smooth, pale ashy-grey or grey to yellow with black patches and conspicuous corky circular lenticels. Inside surface of bark rapidly turns brown on exposure and exfoliates into thick woody plates or scurfy flakes. Blaze pale orange and mottled with a darker orange colour. Leaves opposite-decussate, mostly rather soft and limp; petioles cylindrical, 5-15 cm long, puberulent or glabrous; leaf blades broadly ovate, 10-25 cm x 7-20 cm wide, apically long acuminate or caudate, entire on mature plants but strongly toothed or lobed on young plants, usually cordate or trunkate basally, with a short cuneate attenuation into the petiole, densely tomentose above when young, becoming glabrous above when mature, permanently densely fulvulous-tomentellous with stellate hairs beneath, glanduliferous just above the petiole on the basal attenuation. Flowers abundant, scented, reddish, brown or yellow, in terminal and axillary 1- to-3-flowered cymes on the panicle branches, which are about 8-40 cm long. Flower 2.5-5 cm in diameter; bracts 8 mm long, linear lanceolate; calyx broadly campanulate, about 5 mm long, densely fulvous-tomentose externally, the rim with 5 small, triangular, acute teeth; corolla large, showy, varying from yellow to orange or brilliant orange to reddish- or brownish-yellow, dull yellow-brown, tubular below, obliquely funnel-form at the throat, the tube densely pubescent externally, the limb 2-lipped, the upper lip often orange-pink, deeply divided into 2 oblong, obtuse, backwardly curled lobules, the lower lip often lemon yellow, up to twice as long as the upper and 3-lobed. Fruit a drupe, 1.8-2.5 cm long, obovoid, seated on the enlarged calyx, glossy and yellow when ripe; exocarp succulent and aromatic; endocarp bony and usually 2-celled. Seeds 1-3, lenticular, exalbuminous. The genus was named after J.C. Gmelin, an 18th-century German botanist. The specific name means treelike, from the Latin ‘arbor’ (tree). |
| Grewia optiva | Grewia optiva is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree, 9-12 m in height; crown spreading; bole clear, 3-4 m, and about 1 m diameter. Branches smooth, pale silvery-brown; bark dark brown, thick and roughish, exfoliating in small woody scales; blaze rather fibrous, pale yellow, often tinged pink towards the exterior, juice slimy. Leaves opposite, 5-13 cm x 3-6 cm, ovate, acuminate, closely serrate; teeth small, blunt; rough and hairy above, pubescent beneath, base rounded, slightly oblique, 3-nerved; petiole 0.3-1 cm long, stout, tomentose; stipules 0.5 cm long, linear subulate, caducous. Flowers 1-8, together; penducles solitary, leaf opposed or exceptionally a few axillary; tomentose, 0.8-1.8 cm long. Sepals 1-1.5 cm long, linear oblong, 3-ribbed, green outside, white, pale yellow or red inside; petals white or pale yellow, shorter than the sepals, linear, claw distinct. Fruit is a drupe, 1-4 lobed, each lobe about 0.8 cm in diameter, olive green then black when ripe. The genus was named after Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712), one of the founders of plant physiology. |
| Hardwickia binata | Hardwickia binata is a moderate-sized to large tree, up to 24-30 m tall, girth 1.8-3 m with a clean cylindrical bole up to 12-15 m; graceful, drooping slender branches; crown conical in early life, becoming broader later. Bark of saplings almost silvery white and smooth, gradually changing as the tree gets older to dark grey and rough with irregular vertical cracks, 1.2-2.5 cm thick, exfoliating in narrow flakes. In isolated situations, or on poor soils, the tree tends to branch low down and produce a short bole, but when grown in a fairly crowded crop on favourable soil it produces a long, straight, cylindrical bole with an elevated crown. Leaves small, 2-6 cm long by 2-3 cm wide, alternate, pinnate, almost kidney shaped and greyish-green. Flowers small, pale yellowish-green in axillary and terminal lax panicled racemes. The pod flat and samaroid, 5-7.6 x 1-1.5 cm, oblong lanceolate, coriaceous, narrowed at both ends, with parallel longitudinal veins, containing 1 seed near the apex. The seed is exalbuminous, flat, averaging 0.8 x 0.3 in, in sub-reniform, pointed at one end and rounded at the other, with a fairly hard testa. |
| Hymenaea courbaril | Hymenaea courbaril is a tree usually 30-40 m high, sometimes reaching 50 m in high forest; trunk up to 2 m in diameter, bark usually smooth, greyish, 1-3 cm thick and red internally; in the forest branching 10-20 m above ground level, much lower in exposed sites, crown wide and open or dense; root system fairly superficial with large roots often seen on the surface. Leaves alternate, compound, bifoliate; stipules soon falling; petiole 12-30 mm long; leaflets 2, ovate to lanceolate, curving slightly towards each other, 3-12 x 1.5-7 cm, apex acute to obtuse, base oblique, margins entire, glabrous, shiny and leathery with small glands and prominent veins below, petiolules 2-8 mm long. Inflorescence a short, terminal panicle with few branches and flowers; flowers bisexual; pedicles 3-10 mm long. Sepals 4, concave, oblong-obovate, 12-22 mm long, stamens 10, filamentous, anthers 3-8 mm long, ovary 1-locular, ovules 6-18 or more. Fruit an indehiscent oblong pod, 8-15 x 3-5 cm, pericarp dull dark brown, hard, woody, about 5 cm thick; seeds 1-6, light to dark brown, hard, flattened, obovoid to ellipsoid, 1-2 cm long, surrounded by a dry, creamy brown or greenish pulp. Pods weigh 10-50 g and the pulp accounts for less than 20% of this weight. |
| Ilex mitis | An evergreen tree between 20 – 25 m tall, with a straight, rounded canopy. It is variable in size depending on where it is growing. In the forests of Knysna in South Africa it easily reaches a height of 18 m and may have a trunk diameter of 0.6 m. Stems are normally round. Bark on the young tree is a pale grey-brown with patches of white, smooth with fine, traverse ridges and yellow-brown corky specks. As the tree becomes older it becomes evenly whitish grey with dark and rough spots. Young twigs are reddish purple in colour. The lance-shaped, simple, alternate leaves are shiny dark green and are carried on plum-coloured stalks. They are between 70 – 100 x 19 – 25 mm, with pointed, sometimes curled tips and wavy, sometimes slightly toothed margins. The plum-coloured leaf stalks help to identify the tree. The midrib is sharply impressed above and prominent below. Flowers dioecious, small, white and sweet scented and in bunches between the leaf axils. The forest floor below the trees become carpeted with tiny, white flower petals that are shed as the fruit begins to develop. Fruits bright red, and densely packed along the stems, provide bright splashes of colour, attracting many kinds of birds. There are several small, round seeds each with a sharp point in each fruit. Fruiting trees are conspicuous when viewed from above. |
| Inga edulis | Inga edulis mature trees reach 30 m high and 60 cm diameter at breast height, usually branching from below 3 m. The branches form a broad, flat, moderately dense canopy. The bark is pale grey and smooth with pale elongated lenticels. The young twigs are angular in cross-section and covered with fine short hairs. Leaves, once-pinnate, up to 24 cm long, with 4-6 pairs of opposite leaflets. The terminal pair of leaflets is larger than the basal pair and can be up to 18 cm long and 11 cm wide. Between each leaflet there is a nectary gland on the leaf rachis. The seedlings have a characteristic greyish sheen on the upper leaf surface. Inflorescence in dense axillary spikes of flowers, each consisting of a calyx tube with 5 lobes, a corolla tube with 5 lobes, and a large number of white stamens up to 4.5 cm long, united in a tube in the lower half. Fruits ribbed, cylindrical pods, straight or often spirally twisted, up to 1 m long. They contain fleshy green seeds in a sweet, white, cottony pulp. They are produced during the wet season, and monkeys and birds eat the sweet pulp and scatter the soft seeds. The name ‘inga’ is derived from its name with the Tupi Indians of South America. The specific name, ‘edulis’, means edible. |
| 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. |
| Intsia bijuga | Intsia bijuga is a common medium-sized, unarmed tree of up to 35-(50) m in height. Mature trees have steep rounded buttresses which when fully developed can exceed 4 m. It has been suggested that these buttresses grant the Moluccan ironwood competitive advantage by preventing establishment of competing individuals in the space occupied by the buttresses. The bole can be crooked or straight but the crown is usually spreading and branchlets are glabrous. Leaves paripinnate and semi-deciduous, leaflets 1-6 varying in shape from broadly ovate to obovate, oblong or subfalcate and thinly coriaceous. Inflorescence 5-18 cm varying from very corymbiformly racemose to racemiform. Flowers white and arranged in dense terminal panicles. Bracts, bracteoles and calyx densely short-hairy to glabrous. Pedicels 1-2.25 cm, calyx-tube 7-15 mm segments 9-19 mm. Petals often red or pink in colour. Fruit pod oblong or pear shaped, 8-23 cm x 4-8 cm. Pod leathery,woody and tardily dehiscent usually containing 1-9 seeds. The genus Intsia has 7-9 species of tropical distribution. Intsia is closely related to Afzelia. It is difficult to assign sterile material to either genus. Intsia differs from Afzelia by its three fertile stamens, its flat seeds lacking an aril and its leathery pods. I. bijuga is the most widespread representative of the genus in the Malesian region. I. bijuga seems seriously threatened due to its overexploitation, however, its inclusion in Appendix II of CITES in 1992 was thwarted by Malaysia’s objection. |
| Lansium domesticum | Lansium domesticum is an erect, short-trunked, slender or spreading, reaching 10-15 m in height, with red-brown or yellow-brown, furrowed bark. Leaves pinnate, 22.5-50 cm long, with 5-7 alternate leaflets, obovate or elliptic-oblong, pointed at both ends, 7-20 cm long, slightly leathery, dark-green and glossy on the upper surface, paler and dull beneath, and with prominent midrib. Flowers small, white or pale-yellow, fleshy, mostly bisexual, borne in simple or branched racemes which may be solitary or in hairy clusters on the trunk and oldest branches, at first standing erect and finally pendant, 10-30 cm long. Fruits borne 2-30 in a cluster, oval, ovoid-oblong or nearly round, 2.5-5 cm in diameter, and have light greyish-yellow to pale brownish or pink, velvety skin, leathery, thin or thick, and containing milky latex. There are 5 or 6 segments of aromatic, white, translucent, juicy flesh (arils), acid to subacid in flavour. Seeds, which adhere more or less to the flesh, are usually present in 1 to 3 of the segments. They are green, relatively large, 2-2.5 cm long and 1.25-2 cm wide, very bitter, and sometimes, if the flesh clings tightly to the seed, it may acquire some of its bitterness. There are two distinct botanical varieties; var. pubescens, the typical wild langsat which is a rather slender, open tree with hairy branchlets and nearly round, thick-skinned fruits having much milky latex and var. domesticum, called the duku, doekoe, or dookoo, which is a more robust tree, broad-topped and densely foliaged with conspicuously-veined leaflets; the fruits, borne few to a cluster, are oblong-ovoid or ellipsoid, with thin, brownish skin, only faintly aromatic and containing little or no milky latex. The former is often referred to as the wild type but both varieties are cultivated and show considerable range of form, size and quality. There are desirable types in both groups. Some small fruits are completely seedless and fairly sweet. |
| Leucaena pallida | Leucaena pallida is a small deciduous multiple-stemmed tree 3-7 m tall although occasionally to 10 m tall and a bole diameter of 10-15 (-30) cm, with an open, spreading or narrow crown. Bark smooth, metallic-grey, blotched lighter grey with horizontally aligned pale brown lenticels, slash greenish. Leaves have 15-27 pairs of pinnae, pinnular rachis 8-11 cm long, sparsely hairy, leaflets 6-8(-10) mm long, 1-2 mm wide, 39-50 pairs per pinna, asymmetric truncate at base, linear or oblong, acuminate at apex. Petiole gland unstalked, shallow crater-shaped, elliptical, 3-4 mm long by 2-3 mm wide. Flower head 14-16 mm in diameter, 95-110 flowers per head, in groups of 3-5 in leaf axils on actively growing shoots, sometimes with suppression of leaves on the flowering shoot, flowers appear pale pink or dull purplish mauve. Pods 12-19 cm long, 14-18 mm wide, 3-5 per flower head, linear, slightly thickened and leathery, glossy maroon when unripe, turning reddish-brown, glabrous or occasionally hairy. Seed 5-7 mm wide, 6-8 mm long, slightly rhombic aligned transversely in pods. The specific epithet means pale in reference to the flowers. |
| 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. |
| 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’). |
| Melia azedarach | Melia azedarach is a deciduous tree up to 45 m tall; bole fluted below when old, up to 30-60 (max. 120) cm in diameter, with a spreading crown and sparsely branched limbs. Bark smooth, greenish-brown when young, turning grey and fissured with age. Leaves alternate, 20-40 cm long, bipinnate or occasionally tripinnate. Leaflets 3-11, serrate and with a pungent odour when crushed. Inflorescence a long, axillary panicle up to 20 cm long; flowers showy, fragrant, numerous on slender stalks, white to lilac; sepals 5-lobed, 1 cm long; petals 5-lobed, 0.9 cm long, pubescent; staminal tube deep purple blue, 0.5 cm long, 1 cm across. Fruit a small, yellow drupe, nearly round, about 15 mm in diameter, smooth and becoming a little shrivelled, slightly fleshy. Seed oblongoid, 3.5 mm x 1.6 mm, smooth, brown and surrounded by pulp. Because of the divided leaves, the generic name is derived from the Greek ‘melia’ (the ash); the specific name comes from the Persian ‘azzadirackt’ (noble tree). |
| Milicia excelsa | Milicia excelsa is a large deciduous tree 30-50 m high, with a diameter of 2-10 m; bark thick, pale, ash grey to nearly black, then brown, usually fairly rough and flaking off in small scales, but seldom fissured; slash thick, fibrous, cream coloured with brown spots, exuding white latex; trunk lofty, straight and cylindrical, up to 20 m or more to the 1st branches, usually with short, blunt buttresses; crown high, umbrella-like and growing from a few thick branches; branchlets thick, rather zigzag and angular, all more or less horizontal. Branches of female trees hang down but male individuals have upright branches. Leaves in young trees sandpapery and green above, paler and pubescent below; older leaves often becoming a bright yellow, serrulate at the margin, simple, alternate, 9-20 x 5-10 cm, broadly elliptic or ovate, very shortly acuminate, usually unequally glabrous above and beneath except for minute hairs between the network of veins; about 15 pairs thick parallel, upcurving, pale-coloured lateral nerves, very prominent beneath and looped close to the margin; ultimate veins thick and forming a highly characteristic, more or less rectangular network on the under surface; base subcordate; apex shortly acuminate; edge finely toothed; stalk 2.5-6 cm, stout, glabrous. Flowers dioecious, axillary, greenish, all floral parts in 4s; male flowers white, closely crowded on pendulous, slender catkins (spikes) 15-20 cm long, dangling from twigs of the outer crown. Female trees produce erect flower spikes about 5-6 cm long and 2 cm thick; female flowers greenish, in shorter and much fatter spikes, the styles of each flower projecting so that the inflorescence appears hairy. Fruit arranged along a longitudinal axis with 1 seed on each side, 5-7.5 x 2-2.5 cm, green, wrinkled, fleshy and resembling a fat green caterpillar; no change in the colour of the syncarp when mature, but the flesh between the actual fruit softens. Seeds hard, small and lie in the pulp. |
| 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. |
| Myrianthus arboreus | Myrianthus arboreus is a dioecious tropical tree up to 15 m high with spreading branches from a short stem. Usually has stilt roots. Trunk short, dividing into a spreading crown. Leaves very large, alternately shaped, 5-7 digitately compound, coarsely toothed, with hood like stipules the central leaflet is about 25 x 9 cm. Young leaves are usually red in colour. Male inflorescences yellow, much branched and panicle like are produced in large axillary pairs in the latter part of the dry season. The female inflorescences are paired, stalked greenish clusters (pedunculate), each flower with a thick curled style projecting out of the fused calyx, and a basal ovule. Fruit a syncarp of basally fused, yellow false drupes up to 10 cm, with stylar remains projecting from each drupe. The generic name Myrianthus refers to the great number of flowers borne on the inflorescences, the specific name means ‘tree like’. Some authors place the genera Myrianthus and Musanga in a separate family, Cecropiaceae. |
| Myristica fragrans | M. fragrans is a spreading, medium to large sized, aromatic evergreen tree usually growing to around 5-13 m high, occasionally 20 m. Leaves alternate, pointed, dark green 5-15 cm × 2-7 cm arranged along the branches and are borne on leaf stems about 1 cm long, shiny on the upper surface. Flowers dioecious, pale yellow, waxy, fleshy and bell-shaped. Male flowers 5-7 mm long and in groups of 1-10; female flowers up to 1 cm long and in groups of 1-3 occasionally both sexes are found on the same tree. Fruit oval or pyriform, drooping, yellow, smooth, 6-9 cm long with a longitudinal ridge and a fleshy husk. When ripe, husk splits into 2 halves revealing a purplish-brown, shiny seed surrounded by a leathery red or crimson network of tissue. The shiny, brown seed inside, and the kernel of the seed is the Nutmeg. The brown seed has a red cover that makes another spice called Mace. Bark contains watery pink or red sap. |
| Nauclea diderrichii | Nauclea diderrichii is an evergreen tree that reaches a height of 30-40 m and a diameter of 0.9-1.5 m; bole cylindrical, slender, straight and branchless, rising to 20-30 m and a broad spherical crown with thick foliage. The shining leaves are 15 cm long and bigger when young, elliptic, acute at the ends, keeled towards the base, and stipulate, with a pair of distinct leafy stipules at the base. It is mostly deciduous except at the ends of shoots, and the nodes are often occupied by ants. Flowers small, green-white-yellow and tubular, in solitary terminal heads (unbranched), 3 cm across; stalks only about 1 cm. The fruit is yellow, fleshy, in a globose head deeply pitted between the deeply fused calyx lobes. There are about 250 fruit/kg. |
| Ocotea usambarensis | Ocotea usambarensis is a large tree, 3.5-36 (max. 45) m high with a spreading crown and stem diameter of (min.1.25) 3.75-9.5 m. Bole straight, slightly fluted, buttressed at the base, unbranched for 9-15 m. Bark grey or reddish brown, much fissured, granular, scaly and flaking off in small round patches or thick squares; slash white or faintly pink with a characteristic sweet scent. Leaves opposite (alternate on sucker shoots), simple, elliptic to elongate-ovate or almost round, 4-16.5 cm long, 2.5-9 cm wide, dark green above, whitish below and camphor scented; margin rolled under in mature leaves, glabrous to shortly tomentose or pubescent with spreading ferruginous hairs, rounded to sharply acuminate at the apex, cuneate, rounded or truncate at the base, venation closely reticulate above, lateral nerves impressed above; veins wavy and brown; petiole 0.5-2.2 cm long. Cymose panicles tomentellous, axillary and terminal, 1.2-2.5 cm long, greyish or ferruginous, pubescent; peduncles 2-5 cm long; pedicels less than 2 mm long; bracts ovate about 2 mm long, obtuse, densely pubescent, soon deciduous. Perianth green, whitish or yellow, pubescent, about 1.5 mm long; inner lobes ovate, outer elliptic-oblong, 3 mm long, spreading. Separate male and female flowers, 8-10, each 5 mm long, yellow-white-green, hairy, stalked, held in a calyx cup. Stamens of hermaphrodite flowers with linear filaments as long as anthers; stamens of 3rd whorl with yellow, subglobose sessile or shortly stalked glands inserted on either side at the base; staminodes filiform, 1 mm long with dark tip. Female flowers with stamens and staminodes much reduced. Ovary ovoid, glabrous; style slender, 1 mm long; stigma discoid. Fruit a glabrous drupe, ellipsoid or globose, 8-11 x 1-6.5 mm, borne in a cup 4-6 mm wide and 2-3 mm long, smooth and green when mature; pedicel thickened below cup. Seeds very small and surrounded by pulp. |
| Paraserianthes falcataria | Paraserianthes falcataria is a fairly large tree, up to 40 m tall; bole branchless for up to 20 m; grows to 100 cm or sometimes more in diameter, with a spreading flat crown. Leaves alternate, bipinnately compound, 23-30 cm long, with rusty pressed hairs and slender angled axis bearing gland above base; leaflets paired, 15-20 pairs on each axis, stalkless, small, oblong, 6-12 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, short-pointed at the tip, topside dull green and hairless, underside paler with fine hair. Inflorescence axillary consisting of paniculate racemes, the spikes sometimes arranged in panicles; flowers bisexual, 12 mm long, regular pentamerous, subtended to bracts; calyx hairy, valvate, gamosepalous, tubular to cup or bell shaped; corolla sericeous all over, gamopetalous, funnel or bell shaped, cream to yellowish. Fruit a chartaceous, flat, straight pod, 10-13 x 2 cm, not segmented, dehiscent along both sutures and winged along ventral suture, puberulous but glabrescent, many seeded (15-20); seed subcircular to oblong, 6 mm long, flat to convex, without aril, dull to dark brown, with a thick sclerified exotesta, not winged; endosperm absent; cotyledons large. |
| 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. |
| Parkia biglobosa | Parkia biglobosa is a perennial deciduous tree with a height ranging from 7 to 20 m, although it can reach 30 m under exceptional conditions. Crown large, spreads wide with branches low down on a stout bole; amber gum exudes from wounds; bark dark grey brown, thick, fissured. Leaves alternate, dark green, bipinnate to 30 cm long, pinnae up to 17 pairs with 13-60 pairs of leaflets, 8-30 mm x 1.5-8 mm, of distinctive shape and venation. Leaflets held on a long rachis. Peduncles 10-35 cm long; capitula 4.5-7 cm long and 3.5-6 cm in diameter, biglobose but distal portion much larger. Hermaphrodite flowers orange or red in colour: calyx 10-13 (16 max.) mm; corolla 10-14 (17 max.) mm long, lobes very short 1-3 mm long, connate in the middle and free or connate at base; filaments exserted about 4 mm beyond calyx mouth. Nectar-secreting flowers: calyx about 6-7 mm long. Staminodial flowers: calyx about 5.5-7 mm long, filaments exserted 2-3 mm beyond calyx mouth. Pods, pink brown to dark brown when mature, about 45 cm long and 2 cm wide; may contain up to 30 seeds embedded in a yellow pericarp. Seeds have a hard testa, are large (mean weight 0.26 g/seed) with large cotyledons forming about 70% of their weight. Robert Brown described the genus Parkia in 1826. He named it after Mungo Park, a Scot who made 2 remarkable journeys of exploration into the interior of West Africa in 1795-1797 and 1805. |
| Peltophorum pterocarpum | Peltophorum pterocarpum is a deciduous tree usually reaching a height of 15 (-24) m, although it may attain 50 m and a diameter of 50 (-100) cm. Bark smooth, grey; crown dense, spreading. Leaves large, 30-60 cm long, with 8-10 pairs of pinnae each bearing 10-20 pairs of oblong leaflets 0.8-2.5 cm long with oblique bases. Flowers orange-yellow, each about 2.5 cm in diameter, fragrant, particularly at night; inflorescence brown-tomentose, panicles terminal with rust-coloured buds. Fruits 1-4 seeded pods, flat, thin, winged, 5-10 cm long, dark red when ripe, then turning black. P. pterocarpum has a deep root system. The specific epithet 'pterocarpum' alludes to its winged seed. |
| Phytolacca dioica | Phytolacca dioica is a spreading deciduous tree, 6-10 m in height, with a domed crown. Trunk erect, stout, uniquely swollen at the base, which may grow to 4 m in diameter, spreading above the ground so that the tree appears to be standing on a mound. Bark grey to pale brown, rough; becomes gnarled with age; young branches fleshy green. The trunk and branches contain up to 80% of water. Leaves simple alternate, typical of the family, appearing as terminal whorls; each smooth, oval, somewhat recurved, to 15 cm in length, margin edge appearing white, midrib extending to form a distinct tip; young leaves fresh light-green, leaf stalks and midribs tinged with red. Flowers small, creamy white, with many stamens arising from 5 green sepals hanging in handsome terminal catkins up to 15 cm in length; in flower the tree is striking. Fruits juicy, yellow to black berries with 10 lobes hanging in clusters; irregularly produced after flowering, each 3-7 mm; small, shiny, grey-black seeds are found inside the soft fruits. The genus Phytolacca comprises plants from which juice is extracted for dyeing, a fact reflected in the generic name meaning ‘plant that produces juice’, from the Greek ‘phyton’ (plant) and ‘lacca’, a latinized form of the Amerindian word ‘laek’ (shellac), from the colouring property of the fruit. The generic epithet 'dioica' alludes to the fact male and female flowers occur on separate trees in this species. |
| Pinus patula | Pinus patula grows to a height of 30 m or more and attains a diameter at breast height of up to 1.2 m. Bole straight and cylindrical, sometimes forked, producing 2 or more stems. When grown at wide spacing, the crown tends to spread. The crown may also be rounded or spirelike. Young bark is characteristically a reddish-orange colour and is scaly. The mature bark is grey-brown and vertically ridged. Leaves in fascicles of 3, occasionally 4, rarely 5; slender, 15-25 cm long pendent, pale green to yellowish-green colour, the margins finely serrate; stomata present on the dorsal and ventral surfaces; resin canals 1-4, mostly 3, usually medial, occasionally with 1 or 2 internal; exterior walls of the endoderm thin to slightly thickened, fibrovascular bundles 2, contiguous but distinct; fascicle sheath pale, greyish-brown, 10-15 mm long and persistent. Cornlets purplish, mainly lateral, short, pedunculate, borne singly or in small clusters and up to 8, scales with small deciduous prickles; cones hard, strong, serotinous, generally slightly curved and reflexed, 7-10 cm long, sessile and extremely tenacious with a lustrous brown or yellowish-brown colour, persistent on the tree, borne in groups of 3-6, very variable in size and shape. Seeds dark brown to almost black, very small, about 5 mm long, with a pale brown wing about 17 mm long, slightly thickened at the base where it joins the seed; cotyledons 4-5, generally 5. ‘Pinus’ is from the Greek word ‘pinos’ (pine tree), and possibly from the Celtic word ‘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. |
| Pongamia pinnata | Pongamia pinnata is a medium-sized evergreen or briefly deciduous, glabrous shrub or tree 15-25 m high, with straight or crooked trunk 50-80 cm or more in diameter and broad crown of spreading or drooping branches. Bark grey-brown, smooth or faintly vertically fissured. Branchlets hairless with pale stipule scars. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate with long slender leafstalk, hairless, pinkish-red when young, glossy dark green above and dull green with prominent veins beneath when mature. Leaflets 5-9, paired except at end, short-stalked, ovate elliptical or oblong, 5-25 x 2.5-15 cm, obtuse-acuminate at apex, rounded to cuneate at base, not toothed at the edges, slightly thickened. Inflorescence raceme-like, axillary, 6-27 cm long, bearing pairs of strongly fragrant flowers; calyx campanulate, 4-5 mm long, truncate, finely pubescent. Flower clusters at base of and shorter than leaves, to 15 cm long, slender, drooping. Flowers 2-4 together, short-stalked, pea-shaped, 15-18 mm long. Calyx campanulate, 4-5 mm long, truncate, finely pubescent; corolla white to pink, purple inside, brownish veined outside, 5-toothed, standard rounded obovate 1-2 cm long, with basal auricles, often with green central blotch and thin silky hairs on back; wings oblong, oblique, slightly adherent to obtuse keel. Pods borne in quantities, smooth, oblique oblong to ellipsoid, 3-8 x 2-3.5 x 1-1.5 cm, flattened but slightly swollen, slightly curved with short, curved point (beaked), brown, thick-walled, thick leathery to subwoody, hard, indehiscent, 1-2 seeded, short stalked. Seed compressed ovoid or elliptical, bean-like, 1.5-2.5 x 1.2-2 x 0.8 cm, with a brittle coat long, flattened, dark brown, oily. This species has been placed alone in its genus Pongamia, derived from the Malabar local name (pongam). In 1972, S. R. Bennet, an Indian taxonomist gave the pongam a new name, Derris indica (Lamk.) Bennet, but this change has not been generally adopted. The name Derris, derived from Greek, means ‘leather covering or skin’; the specific name ‘indica’ obviously means of India. |
| Populus ciliata | A mature Populus ciliata is a large deciduous tree with tall clean straight bole and broad rounded crown. The bark of young trees is smooth greenish-grey and that of the old trees dark brown with deep vertical fissures. Leaves resemble those of pipal (Ficus religiosa) to earn it the name Pahari pipal; broadly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, with serrulate-crenate and ciliate margins, 7.5-18.0 cm long, base usually cordate, 3-5 nerved; petiole 5-12.5 cm long, compressed above. Flowers in drooping raceme-like catkins appearing before or with leaves. Perianth of male flowers bell-shaped and female flowers bluntly toothed. Capsule 3 or 4-valved and encloses an average of 100-150 seeds. |
| Populus deltoides | Populus deltoides is a medium-sized to large tree, 20-30 (max. 50) m tall, 100 cm dbh; bark greyish-green and smooth at first, later blackish and furrowed; trunk short and massive in the open, often divided into a few large, wide-spreading limbs near the ground to form a broad, irregular-shaped, open crown. In the forest, the trunk is long, straight, with a small, rounded crown; root system usually shallow, wide spreading, may be deep in deep soils. It is one of the fastest growing trees, often planted where fast growth is the main requirement. Leaves broadly deltoid, 8-15 cm long and nearly as broad, glabrous on both sides, short-acuminate, dentate, with incurved glandular or callous-tipped teeth; bases truncate to subcordate, with 2-3 basal glands; petiole strongly flattened laterally. Bracts of catkins fringed or fimbriate, the divisions narrow; staminate aments 7.5-12.5 cm long, thick; stamens about 60 or more; anthers red; pistillate aments green and slender; ovaries glabrous; stigmas 3 or 4. Mature seed catkins 15-25 cm long; stalk hairless; capsules ovoid, 6-10 mm long, glabrous, green, splitting into 3-4 parts when mature; peduncle 3-10 mm long; seeds cottony. The generic name is the classical Latin name for poplars, possibly from ‘paipallo’ (vibrate or shake) or originating in ancient times when the poplar was called ‘arbor populi’ (the tree of the people), because in Rome it was used to decorate public places. The specific name means ‘triangular’, referring to the shape of the leaves, from the Greek letter delta and ‘oides’ (resembling). |
| 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. |
| Pouteria sapota | Pouteria sapota grows into a handsome, open tree with a thick central trunk and a few large limbs. Mamey sapote trees are large, erect to spreading trees which may grow to a height of about 12.2 m and may exceed 18.3 m in more tropical regions. Leaves large, up to 30.5 cm long, 10.2 cm wide, simple, and obovate to oblanceolate. The underside is lighter green or brownish and pubescent (hairy) when young but becomes glabrous (smooth) when mature. The leaves are clustered at the ends of the small branches. Depending on the cultivar (variety) and recent crop load, trees will shed most of the leaves in late winter or spring, but develop new leaves rapidly. Flowers small, perfect, whitish, almost sessile flowers are produced abundantly along smaller branches 1.3 to 5.1 cm, and tend to cluster towards the ends. Fruit a berry, ovoid to ellipsoid in shape, with a persistent calyx at the base. Most vary from 7.6 to 20.3 cm in length. The skin is thick and woody with a russet brown, somewhat scurfy surface. The pulp of mature fruits is salmon pink, orange, red or reddish-brown in color, soft and smooth to finely granular in texture, usually low in fiber. The pulp has a sweet, almond-like, unique flavor. Normally, the fruit contains a single, large, elliptical seed but it may have up to four. The seed has a shiny, hard, dark brown surface with a light brown hilum on the ventral side. Seeds may crack and sprout in over mature fruits. Fruit weight ranges from 0.3-2.7 kg The name “Mamey” originated from the confusion with Mammea americana. |
| Pseudosamanea guachapele | Pseudosamanea guachapele is a large tree with a spreading crown, well-formed bole without significant buttresses. |
| Quercus glauca | Q. glauca is a medium-sized (up to 20 m), attractive broadleaf evergreen tree, with an oval, rounded crown and a clear, cylindrical bole. Leaves alternate, simple, evergreen, oblong, elliptic, to obovate-oblong , 7-13 cm long, 2.5-6 cm wide, abruptly acuminate. Margin serrate on the upper half. Lamina glabrous and glossy green above, glaucous and silky hairy beneath. New foliage is either a rich green or bronze to purple-green. Very handsome when the new foliage emerges which usually occurs in early. Fruit a corn, 1 to 3 in a cluster, enclosed 1/3 in a downy cap with 6 to 7 raised concentric rings, ripens in one year. Acorns ovoid, 2 cm long, maturing (rarely in Europe) in one year. |
| Salvadora persica | Salvadora persica is an evergreen shrub or small tree to 6-7 m; main trunk erect or trailing with profusely branched, wide crown of crooked, straggling and drooping branches; young branches green in colour; bark slightly rough, greyish-brown on main stem, paler elsewhere. Leaves oblong-elliptic to almost circular, 3 x 7 cm, light to dark green, rather fleshy, sometimes with wartlike glandular dots and dense, rather loose hairs; apex broadly tapering to rounded, sharp-tipped; base broadly tapering; margin entire; petiole up to 10 mm long; leaves in opposite pairs. Flowers greenish to yellowish, very small, in loose, slender-branched axillary or terminal panicles, up to 10 cm long. Fruit spherical, fleshy, 5-10 mm in diameter, pink to scarlet when mature, single seeded; seeds turn from pink to purple-red and are semi-transparent when mature. The generic name was given in 1749 in honour of an apothecary of Barcelona, Juan Salvador y Bosca (1598-1681), by Dr Laurent Garcin, botanist, traveller and plant collector. The true specimen of this species came, as the specific name indicates, from Persia. |
| Schinziophyton rautanenii | Schinziophyton rautanenii is a deciduous tree 8-20(-24) m tall with a closed, spreading crown; trunk to 1 m in diameter, 3-4 clustered, or single bole; bark smooth and flaking. Leaves alternate, digitately compound, consisting of 5-7 leathery segments usually hairless below and with grey wooly hairs above. There are usually 1 or 2 black glands on the upper side of each leaf-stalk. Flowers whitish or yellow, dioecious, in loose rusty sprays. Male flowers in long rusty sprays, female shorter in length. Fruit ovoid, waxy and brown in colour; weighing 7-10 g with a thick leathery skin, fleshy, dry, spongy pulp 2-5 mm thick, shell tough 3-7 mm thick. Seeds 1 or 2 in the fruit. |
| Schizolobium parahybum | Schizolobium parahybum is unarmed, with a cylindrical bole, high buttresses and a wide spreading, open crown. Leaves bipinnate, large; pinnae 15-20 pairs, fernlike; leaflets small, elliptic, 10-20 pairs, stipules absent. Flowers golden yellow, large, profusely produced in axillary semi-erect racemes or terminal panicles; bracts minute; bracteoles absent; calyx tube obliquely turbinate; lobes 5, overlapping, reflexed at flowering; petals 5, clawed, subequal, overlapping, uppermost petal innermost; stamens 10, free, subdeclinate; filaments villous, basally rough; anthers uniform, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary subsessile affixed to 1 side of calyx tube, many-ovuled, style filiform; stigma minute, terminal. Pod flat, spoon or tear-drop shaped, exocarp firm, leathery, tardily dehiscent. Seed large, oblong, compressed, located near apex. The genus Schizolobium has 4-5 members. The generic name is derived from the Greek verb schizo, “divide” and lobion, “pod”; the inner and outer layers of the pod separate at maturity, whereas the specific epithet is after the Parahyba River in Brazil. |
| Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra | Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra is a medium to large tree, usually 9 m tall, but trees up to 18 m have been recorded; it is single stemmed with a dense, spreading crown and deciduous foliage; the bark is grey and usually peels off in flat, round disks, exposing the underlying light yellow tissue; young twigs are thick and digitaliform with spirally arranged composite leaves at their ends; it has a thick, relatively short taproot reaching depths of 2.4 m, lateral roots branch at the upper 60 cm of soil; mycorrhizae (root fungus) are found on the fine roots. Leaves 18-25 x 8-15 cm, composite, containing 2-23 leaflets, averaging 11; leaflets oblong elliptic with petioles ranging from very short to 20 mm in length. Although male and female flowers occasionally occur on the same tree, it is considered dioecious. Male flowers are borne in groups of 3s on racemes below new leaves, dark red when young, turning pink or white when open. The female flowers are blood red but change colour from purple to white after opening. They occur below the leaves on long peduncles and consist of 4 curling petals, numerous infertile stamens and a long, shiny ovary. Fruit borne in clusters of up to 3 at the end of the twigs and always on the new growth. Fruit a round or oval drupe, usually wider than it is long, with a diameter of 30-40 mm. The shape and number of nuts per stone determine the final shape of the fruit. Marula fruit has a thick, soft leathery exocarp with tiny, round or oval spots, enclosing a juicy, mucilaginous flesh that adheres tightly to the stone and can be removed only by sucking. The flesh tastes tart, sweet and refreshing, although the fruit has a slight turpentine-like aroma and can give off a very unpleasant smell when decaying. Each fruit contains an exceedingly hard seed, which is covered by fibrous matter. It is usually trilocular, but sometimes only bilocular. Each seed locule contains a single, light nut filling the entire cavity, which is sealed by a round, hard disk that protects the embryo until germination. The name ‘sclerocarya’ is derived from two Greek words, ‘skleros’ and ‘karyon’, meaning ‘hard’ and ‘nut’, respectively, and refers to the hard stone of the fruit. ‘Birrea’ comes from ‘birr’, the common name for the tree in Senegal, and caffra from ‘Kaffaria’ (Eastern Cape, South Africa). |
| Senna spectabilis | Senna spectabilis is a small, rounded deciduous tree, 7-10 m (max. 15) tall, and 30 cm in trunk diameter, with a spreading crown. Bole is short, tends to fork near the ground and is wide spreading with drooping, leafy branches. Bark smooth, grey with horizontal markings, many warts and short fissures, rougher with age with broad vertical bands of large lenticels (corky pores). Twigs stout, brown with light dots (lenticels), finely hairy; young parts softly pubescent. Leaves alternate, up to 40 cm, compound (pinnate) with 4-15 (max. 19) pairs of leaflets, each up to 7.5 cm; petiole 3-4 cm; rachis 10-20 cm (max. 35); stipules paired, threadlike, linear falcate, early caducous, about 1 cm long, without glands; leaflets narrowly elliptic, 3-7 x 1-2 cm (the lowermost petal usually much smaller and early caducous); base rounded, apex acute, mucronate; margin entire, upper surface glabrous, dull green and almost hairless, with many slightly sunken side veins; lower surface dull light green and soft hairy, sometimes hairless; petiolule short, about 3 mm long. Inflorescence large, terminal, lateral, leafy panicles, 15-30 cm (max. 90) long, which are branched and very large. Flowers many, fragrant, composed of 5 rounded hairy bracts, which are ovate, 4-5 mm long, caducous; pedicles 2-3 mm, velutinous. Sepals orange-yellow, unequal, ovate to suborbicular; 2 outer pubescent, 3 inner glabrous, larger, 5-7 mm long. Petals yellow, spathulate, unequal, broadly to narrowly obovate, 2-3.5 cm long, anthers opening by apical pores and a slit; stamens 7 large and 3 small sterile (staminodes). Pistil slender, curved, hairless; ovary glabrous, recurved; style and stigma inconspicuous. Fruit cylindrical or flattened pods ending in a short, narrow point, hard, not splitting open or slightly on 1 side; pendulous, more or less terete or slightly compressed, glabrous, glossy, annulate-septate, 18-25 (max. 30) x 1 cm, turning from green to black; with many cross walls about 3 mm or less apart, the seeds in separate compartments. Seeds 2.5 cm each division, 50-70, suborbicular, flattened, brown, about 5 mm in diameter; septae papery. |
| Shorea robusta | Shorea robusta is a large, deciduous tree up to 50 m tall and with a dbh of 5 m; these are exceptional sizes, and under normal conditions S. robusta trees attain a height of about 18-32 m and girths of 1.5-2 m; bole is clean, straight and cylindrical, but often bearing epicormic branches; crown is spreading and spherical. Bark dark brown and thick, with longitudinal fissures deep in poles, becoming shallow in mature trees; provides effective protection against fire. The tree develops a long taproot at a very young age. Leaves simple, shiny, glabrous, about 10-25 cm long and broadly oval at the base, with the apex tapering into a long point; new leaves reddish, soon becoming delicate green. Flowers yellowish-white, arranged in large terminal or axillary racemose panicles. Fruit at full size about 1.3-1.5 cm long and 1 cm in diameter; it is surrounded by segments of the calyx enlarged into 5 rather unequal wings about 5-7.5 cm long. |
| Simmondsia chinensis | Simmondsia chinensis is a leafy, xerophytic, woody evergreen dioecious shrub or small multi-stemmed tree that grows to a height of 0.5–1 m in the wild, occasionally to 6 m tall with taproots to 12 m long. Leaves opposite, oval or lanceolate, grey green or bluish-green, leathery, oblong, opposite, 2.5–3.5 cm long and contain special tissue with a high concentration of phenol compounds. Flowers apetalous, dioecious; the male flowers are yellow, larger, and occur in clusters with 10–12 stamens per flower; female flowers small, usually solitary in the axils or in clusters at the nodes, pale green with 5 greenish sepals, soft and hairy. Fruits green capsules, ovoid, usually dehiscent with 1-3 seeds. Seed peanut-sized, dark brown, the endosperm scanty or absent The first taxonomic description of this species appeared in 1822, when Johann Link named it as Buxus chinensis but later changed to Simmondsia californica in 1844 by Thomas Nuttall. In 1912, the Austrian botanist, Camillo Karl Schneider, renamed it as Simmondsia chinensis. Although earlier botanists placed jojoba in the family Buxaceae, many other botanists believe that it should be placed in its own family due to its morphological and anatomical distinctiveness. |
| Sophora japonica | Sophora japonica is a deciduous, small to medium-sized tree up to 15(-30) m tall; bole generally short; bark surface corrugated, dark greenish-brown or dark grey-green and spreading branches, with paler lenticels; crown broad. Leaves arranged spirally, imparipinnate, 15-25 cm long; stipules early caducous; leaflets alternate to subopposite, 7-17, elliptical to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-6 cm x 1-2.5 cm, acute or sometimes obtuse at apex, mucronate, glabrous or sparsely hairy above, short-haired below, shortly petiolulate; stipellae absent or small and setaceous. Flowers in a terminal, 15-35 cm long panicle, papilionaceous; bracteoles present; calyx 3-4 mm long; stamens 10, filaments joined near the base; ovary superior, pilose. Fruit an indehiscent pod, 3-12 cm x 7-12 mm, constricted between the seeds, stipitate, glabrous, beaked, 1-8-seeded. Seeds ellipsoid to nearly globose, 8 mm x 4-5 mm, yellowish-brown. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent; first few leaves imparipinnate or sometimes 1- or 3-foliolate. |
| Spondias mombin | Spondias mombin is a tree to 30 m high; bark greyish-brown, thick, rough, often deeply grooved, with blunt, spinelike projections; trunk with branches 2-10 m above ground level to form a spreading crown up to 15 m in diameter and forming an open or densely closed canopy, depending on the vigour of the individual; seedlings with deep taproot, probably persisting in mature tree, which also possesses a shallower root system near the surface. Leaves alternate, once pinnate with an odd terminal leaflet; stipules absent; rachis 30-70 cm long; leaflets 5-10 pairs, elliptic, 5-11 x 2-5 cm; apex long acuminate, asymmetric, truncate or cuneate; margins entire, glabrous or thinly puberulous. Inflorescence a branched, terminal panicle with male, female and hermaphrodite flowers; sepals 5, shortly deltoid, 0.5-1 cm long; petals 5, white or yellow, oblong, 3 mm long, valvate in bud, becoming reflexed; stamens 10, inserted beneath a fleshy disc; ovary superior, 1-2 mm long; styles 4, short, erect. Fruit an ovoid or ellipsoid drupe, 3-4 x 2-2.5 cm in diameter; dull light orange to yellow or brown; in clusters of 1-20; epicarp thin, enclosing a juicy orange or yellow mesocarp 3-6 mm thick; endocarp large, with a soft, fibrous, grooved coat surrounding 4-5 small seeds. |
| Spondias purpurea | Spondias purpurea is a single stemmed tree or shrub up to 15m tall with a medium canopy and a spreading crown. The bark is grey or brown, smooth and thick, becoming rough and warty on large trunks. It develops a poor crooked stem form and shallow lateral roots. The large branches are brittle and easily broken. Leaves pinnate 10-20 cm long with 9-25 almost stalkless, elliptic, thin, yellow-green leaflets, 1.8-3.75 cm long, rounded, or short-pointed at apex, short-pointed and slightly oblique at base, with edges slightly wavy toothed. Leaflet blades are more or less paired except for the terminal one. The stout twigs are green and lenticelled. Flowers red or pink in lateral minutely haired panicles floral parts in fives, the calyx is 5-lobed, there are 5 petals (0.3 cm long), stamens 10, and pistil on a disk. Ovary 5-celled with 3-4 short styles. Fruits yellow or purplish-red, cylindrical, short stalked, 2.5 -3 cm long. The yellow juicy pulp surrounds a large stone, 1.25- 1.8 cm, fibrous on the outside, and containing 5 or fewer seeds. The genus Spondias, consisting of 8-10 fruit species of American and Asian origin is prevalent throughout the tropics. The yellow-fruited form of S. purpurea is considered a separate species by other authors. The specific epithet means purple. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Terminalia arjuna | Terminalia arjuna is a deciduous large-sized fluted tree to 30 m tall and 2-2.5 m dbh, with an often buttressed trunk. Its superficial, shallow root system spreads radially along stream banks. The large, spreading crown produces drooping branches. Bark grey or pinkish-green, thick, smooth and exfoliating in thin irregular sheets. Leaves simple, opposite to sub-opposite, 5–25 × 4–9 cm, oblong or elliptic oblong, glabrous, hard, often inequilateral, margin often crenulate, apex obtuse or sub-acute, base rounded or sometimes cordate. The petiole is short (2-4 cm long), sericeous, with 2 (or 1) prominent two glands at petiole apex Inflorescences are short axillary spikes or small terminal panicles, 9-13 cm long with 2.5-6 cm long branches. The rachis short, white and pubescent. Lower receptacle 0.8-1.5 mm long, short sericeous, upper receptacle 1.5-1.75 mm long, glabrous except at base where slightly pubescent. Flowers are small, cup-shaped, regular, sessile, polygamous, white, creamy or greenish-white and strongly honey-scented. Fruit 2.5-6 x 1.8-2.8 cm long, obovoid-oblong, dark brown to reddish-brown fibrous woody, indehiscent drupe, glabrous with 5-7 equal thick narrow stiff-wings and striated with numerous upwards-curved veins. The generic name Terminalia comes from Latin word ‘terminus’ or ‘terminalis’ (ending), and refers to the habit of the leaves being crowded or borne on the tips of the shoots. |
| Terminalia brownii | Terminalia brownii is a leafy deciduous tree with an attractive somewhat layered appearance, usually 4-15(25) m high with a rounded, flat topped, spreading crown, and a straight bole; branches reaching close to the ground. Slash dull red-brown, bark of branchlets grey fibrous. Young bark smooth, whitish, old bark grey, longitudinally fissured, young shoots densely hairy. Leaves spirally arranged, crowded at the ends of branches, underside with white hairs, turning bright red before falling. Broadly elliptic to obovate, wider towards the apex, 6-16 x 2.5-8 cm, glarbrous on the underside, lateral veins prominent, about 7 pairs arising from the mid-rib; apex pointed, sometimes notched; margin wavy; petiole 1.5-4 cm long, acuminate, with white hairs. Flowers long, white to cream, 0.5 mm wide, glabrous, calyx lobes acuminate, unpleasantly scented, in axillary spikes 9.5-12 cm in length (inflorescence), peduncle 1.5-2 cm long, tomentose. Each inflorescence contains bisexual and male flowers, the male ones towards the apex, the bisexual ones towards the base. Fruit winged, smooth, greenish when young, purplish-red to brown when mature, broadly elliptic to ovate, apex obtuse to rounded, emarginate, base acute to obtuse, 3.5 x 4.2(5) x 2.5 sometimes up to 7.5 cm long; pedicel 0.5-0.7 cm long; endocarp woody, containing long and delicate seeds. Seeds 2-winged, 3 cm long, 2 cm wide, red to purple in colour. The generic name comes from the Latin ‘terminalis’ (ending), and refers to the habit of the leaves being crowded at the ends of the shoots. |
| Terminalia ivorensis | Terminalia ivorensis is a large deciduous forest tree ranging in height from 15 to 46 m, branchless for up to 30 m, dbh 2-4.75 m. Bole clean, very straight with small buttresses and sometimes fluted. Mature trees very flat topped with a wide horizontal canopy of evenly distributed foliage arising from the apex of the straight bole. In young trees, the branches are whorled; deciduous, young shoots and foliage falling a few years after initial growth, leaving sockets to mark their original position on the bole. Bark smooth and light grey to dark brown when young and on branchlets; in mature trees often blackish, with deep longitudinal fissures. The bark flakes off in long thin strips. Slash yellow. T. ivorensis forms a good taproot supported by 6-8 powerful lateral roots. There is also evidence of a widespread and rather superficial root system. Leaves 6.4-12.7 x 2.5-6 cm, whorled, simple, oval, blunt tipped with orange-brown hairs below and on veins above, also on the short stalks; 6-7 pairs widely spaced veins, prominent below. Flowers in axillary spikes 7.6-10.2 cm long with bisexual flowers nearly to the apex. The lower receptacle is densely tomentose, the upper receptacle less so. Fruit winged and somewhat variable in size, especially in the width of the wings. Elongated and narrow, emarginate and slightly decurrent, 5.8-10 x 1.7-2 cm, finely tomentose with very short reddish or orange-brown hairs, pedicel 7-11 mm long. When ripe it is reddish-brown and woody, frequently having a weevil hole; oval seed in the centre, 1.5 cm. The generic name comes from the Latin ‘terminalis’ (ending), and refers to the habit of the leaves being crowded at the ends of the shoots. |
| Tetrapleura tetraptera | Tetrapleura tetraptera is deciduous; it reaches 20-25 m in height, with a girth of 1.5-3 m. The bole is slender and older trees have very small, low, sharp buttresses. In the forest, the crown is fairly small, thin and rounded, becoming flat when old, but it tends to spread when in the open. Bark fairly smooth, grey-brown, very thin; slash reddish, strong smelling, fairly thick. Twigs and young foliage virtually glabrous or minutely hairy. Leaves are sessile, glabrous or minutely hairy with a common stalk 15-30 cm long, slightly channelled on the upper surface. The pinnae are in 5-9 pairs, 5-10 cm long, mostly opposite but sometimes alternate; 6-12 leaflets on each side of the pinna stalk, always alternate, 12-25 mm long, 6-12 mm broad, slightly elongated, elliptic or slightly obovate, rounded at both ends, the apex sometimes very slightly notched, the base usually unequal, practically glabrous, with slender stalks about 2 mm long; lateral nerves indistinct, running at a wide angle to the prominent midrib. Flowers are pinkish-cream turning to orange and are densely crowded in spikelike racemes 5-20 cm long, usually in pairs in the upper leaf axils; individual flowers with slender stalks and 10 short stamens, the anthers carrying a gland at the apex. Fruit is very persistent, hanging at the ends of branches on stout stalks 25 cm long. It is shiny, glabrous, dark purple-brown, usually slightly curved, 15-25 cm long by about 5 cm across, with 4 longitudinal, winglike ridges nearly 3 cm broad. Two of the wings are woody, the other 2 filled with soft, sugary pulp, oily and aromatic. The seeds, which rattle in the pods, are small, black, hard, flat, about 8 mm long, embedded in the body of the pod, which does not split open. The kernel contains oil. The generic name comes from a Greek word meaning ‘four ribs’, referring to the ribbed fruit. The specific epithet means four winged. |
| Tipuana tipu | Tipuana tipu is a large, spreading semi-deciduous tree to 20 m, but occasionally to 30 m, with a light spreading crown and spreading branches. Bark red-brown; trunk fissured and flaking with age, bark on the branches grey and cracked, sap from the cut branches red and sticky. Leaves pinnate, alternate, petiolate, with pulvinus base; leaflets light green, each narrowly oblong to oblong elliptic, 4-5 cm long; margin entire, tip rounded, often notched, on a short stalk. Flowers many, in long, loose sprays, each with wavy yellow-orange petals. They appear in showy terminal and axillary racemes or panicles; calyx small, bell-shaped, 5-pointed; corolla papilionaceous, about 2 cm long. Fruit usual for the Fabaceae family. The only genus in the family with single-seeded, flat-winged fruit, yellow-green at first, looking like blossoms, later grey-brown, fibrous; indehiscent, winged pod (samara) staying on the tree for a long time. The generic name ‘tipuana’ is derived from the vernacular name ‘tipu’. |
| Toona ciliata | Toona ciliata is a large deciduous tree with a spreading crown, commonly attaining a height of 20-30 m and a girth of 1.8-3 m. Bark dark grey or reddish-brown, smooth up to middle age, afterwards rough, with shallow reticulate cracks exfoliating in irregular woody scales. Blaze 1.3-1.5 m, fibrous throughout, pink or pinkish-brown, sometimes with just a few white bands towards the outside, turning brown on exposure, bitter to the taste, juice turning purple on the blade of a knife. Leaves 30-50 cm long, on young trees up to 90 cm long, usually imparipinnate, sometimes paripinnate by the abortion of the terminal leaflet; leaflets 11-29, opposite or alternate, 5-15 x 2-6 cm, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous, pubescent, margin entire or wavy, base oblique; petiolules 0.3-1.3 cm long. Flowers small, honey scented, cream coloured, in drooping or sub-erect terminal panicles, usually shorter than the leaves. Calyx divided nearly to the base. Petals 5 mm long, ovate-oblong, sub-acute, with ciliate margins. Capsule dark brown, 1.8-2.5 x 0.5-0.8 cm, oblong, usually smooth outside, sometimes sparsely lenticellate. Seeds pale brown, very light, winged at both ends, 1.3-1.5 cm long including the wing. The synonymous name ‘cedrela’ is from the Latin ‘cedrus’, the cedar, the name given on account of its scented wood. |
| 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. |
| Vitex parviflora | Vitex parviflora is a medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 30(-38) m tall, bole up to 125(-200) cm in diameter and branchless for up to 20m, but often much shorter and crooked, with buttresses; bark surface smooth, shallowly fissured or flaky, pale grey to pale yellowish-brown, inner bark pale yellow to bright orange; crown often spreading. Leaves opposite, compound, 3-foliate, leaflets glabrous below. Inflorescence terminal and in the upper leaf axils, paniculate, rather lax; flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, calyx cup-shaped, with 5 lobes, calyx lobes absent or indistinct; corolla with a short tube, bluish, 2-lipped, upper lip 2-lobbed, 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, sessile on the often enlarged calyx, 5mm in diameter, bluish-black when mature, 1-4 seeded. Seed obovoid or oblong, lacking endosperm. |
| 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. |
| Ziziphus abyssinica | Ziziphus abyssinica is a semi-evergreen spiny shrub, scrambler or small tree up to 12 m tall with a straight, occasionally crooked, single bole; spreading, drooping branches forming a heavy, rounded and untidy crown. Fresh bark creamy, becoming greyish brown, longitudinally fissured and rough in older specimens. Leaves ovate to broadly ovate, alternate along the stems, up to 8 x 4.7 cm, conspicuously 3-veined from the base, dark green above with veins depressed, leathery, paler green below due to the dense rusty yellow to grey furry hairs; apex broadly tapering, frequently ending in a hairlike tip; base lobed, markedly asymmetric; margin finely toothed; petiole up to 1.2 cm long, with dense soft hairs; stipules spinescent, short, hairy stalk. Flowers small, star-shaped, creamy to yellowish-green, with an unpleasant, sharp smell, in dense, light clusters in the axils of the leaves; inconspicuous except when produced in profusion; stalk 1-2 cm long, beside leaves. Fruit almost spherical, 2-3 cm in diameter, shiny red or reddish-brown when mature, smooth, containing 1 or 2 light brown glossy seeds inside the inner stone. 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. The specific name means ‘from Ethiopia’. |
| 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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