Diagnostic ³

"Trees, to 7 m high; branchlets angular and pubescent, becoming terete, glabrous and brown with age; leafscars prominent. Leaves simple, alternate, crowded towards the apex of branchlets, estipulate; petiole 2-3 mm long, slender, pubescent; lamina 7-11 x 2-2.5 cm, linear-oblong, base attenuate, apex acute, margin entire, glabrous above, puberulent beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 6-10 pairs pinnate, slender, faint, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, bright yellow, in terminal white silky compact heads surrounded by an involucre of silky bracts; pedicels 2 mm, densely pilose; calyx tube to 1.5 cm, densely long pilose without; lobes 5, 3 mm, oblong, pilose without; petaloid appendages 8, yellow, terete, fleshy; stamens 8-10, in 2 rows; ovary superior, sessile, oblong, 1-celled; style filiform, stigma capitate. Fruit a berry, 4 mm long, ellipsoid, densely pilose, enclosed in the calyx; seed brown, ridged laterally."

Diagnostic ⁴

"

Habit

Small trees up to 7 m tall.

Trunk\bark

Bark brownish, irregularly scaly when mature; blaze yellowish.

Branchlets

Young branchlets angular to terete, pubescent when young, later glabrous.

Leaves

Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered at twig ends; petiole 0.3 cm long, slender, planoconvex in cross section, pubescent when young; lamina 4-8.5 x 1-2 cm, narrow elliptic to elliptic-obovate, apex acute with mucronate tip, base obtuse or attenuate, margin entire, pubescent beneath; midrib flat or slightly canaliculate above; secondary nerves up to 10 pairs, not prominent; tertiary nerves broadly reticulate or obscure.

Flowers

Flowers yellow, in terminal heads, with involucrate silky bracts; pedicel 0.2 cm long.

Fruit& seed

Fruit indehiscent, dry, small, 1-seeded."

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Günter Baumann, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.westafricanplants.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=34&id=3019
2. (c) MBG, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://images.mobot.org/tropicosthumbnails/TropicosImages2/100024000/100024430.jpg
3. (c) India Biodiversity Portal, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/26329213
4. (c) India Biodiversity Portal, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/26319622

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• African Plants - a photo guide
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• World Flora Online

iNat Map