4629.000 Gymnosporia (Wight & Arn.) Hook. f.

Description of the genus

Trees or shrubs, usually armed with spines or spiny branchlets. Stipules free, small, caducous or 0. Leaves alternate or fasciculate (on short shoots). Flowers in cymes, usually functionally unisexual. Sepals 5(-6). Petals 5(-6), white, cream to greenish-yellow. Disk intrastaminal, single, convex to shallowly concave, entire or shallowly (4-)5-10(-12)-lobed or angled. Ovary superior. Stigma 2-3(-4)-branched. Fruit a dehiscent capsule, without outgrowths. Seeds 1-6(-8), glossy, red-brown, ± surrounded by a yellow, or more rarely a white or purple, aril.

Derivation of name: from the Greek gymnos meaning naked, spora meaning a seed, referring to the seeds that remain attached and exposed when the fruiting capsules open.

Zambia: 5 taxa.

The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this genus:
Phalanta phalantha (African or Common Leopard)
Gymnosporia senegalensis

Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsProvincesContent
buchananii Loes.N,W,CNw,Lp,C
buxifolia (L.) Szyszyl.McDescription, Image
maranguensis (Loes.) Loes.
putterlickioides Loes.N,E,SE,SDescription, Image
senegalensis (Lam.) Loes.B,N,W,C,E,SN,LkDescription, Image

Other sources of information about Gymnosporia:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Gymnosporia
Flora of Caprivi: Gymnosporia
Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Gymnosporia
Flora of Malawi: Gymnosporia
Flora of Mozambique: Gymnosporia
Flora of Zimbabwe: Gymnosporia
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Gymnosporia

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Gymnosporia
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Gymnosporia
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Gymnosporia
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Gymnosporia
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Gymnosporia
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Gymnosporia
JSTOR Plant Science: Gymnosporia
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Gymnosporia
Plants of the World Online: Gymnosporia
Tropicos: Gymnosporia
Wikipedia: Gymnosporia

Copyright: Mike Bingham, Annette Willemen, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Mark Hyde, 2011-24

Bingham, M.G., Willemen, A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. and Hyde, M.A. (2024). Flora of Zambia: Genus page: Gymnosporia.
https://www.zambiaflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=886, retrieved 19 March 2024

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