Uapaca pilosa Hutch.
var. pilosa

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Kitwe, Mwekera
Mar 1988
Photo: Mike Bingham

Mansa
Oct 1997
Photo: Mike Bingham

Habit
Degraded miombo woodland
Chingola District
Nov 2025
Photo: Nick Wightman

Leaves
Degraded miombo woodland
Chingola District
Nov 2025
Photo: Nick Wightman

Flower
Degraded miombo woodland
Chingola District
Nov 2025
Photo: Nick Wightman

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Species details: Click on each item to see an explanation of that item (Note: opens a new window)

Synonyms:	Uapaca masuku De Wild.
Common names:
Frequency:	Local
Status:	Native
Description:	An open-branched shrub or small tree up to 4.5 m high, with stout, brittle branchlets. Bark smooth or rough, longitudinally or quadrangularly-fissured. Young twigs pubescent. Stipules 5-7 mm long, linear to narrowly lanceolate, pubescent, soon falling. Leaves sessile or shortly petiolate, or petioles up to 7 cm long (var. petiolata).Leaf blades up to 40 × 25 cm, broadly obovate to obovate-oblanceolate, rounded at the apex, cuneate-attenuate at the base, thinly coriaceous; indumentum pubescent or pilose at first, especially along the midrib and main nerves, later ± glabrescent on leaf upper surface. Inflorescences usually borne just below the leaves. Male peduncles c. 4–6(9) cm long, pubescent; bracts 10, 10-15 × 3-7 mm, oblong, pubescent without, glabrous within, yellowish-green at first, turning cream-yellow; head 0.7-1 cm in diameter. Female peduncles c. 1 cm long, extending to up to 6 cm long in fruit, stouter than the male; bracts more or less as in male inflorescence. Male flowers: calyx lobes 5-6, 1.5 mm long, linear-oblong to setaceous, pubescent at the apex; stamens 5, filaments very short, anthers 1 mm long, pale yellow, turning buff; pistillode hypocrateriform, pubescent at the apex. Female flower: calyx lobes 1 × 1 mm, broadly triangular, pubescent at the apex; ovary 4-5 × 4-5 mm, subglobose, glabrous, yellowish-green, white-speckled; styles 3(5), 7-8 mm long, somewhat irregularly multipartite, the segments linear-setaceous, pale yellow. Fruits 3 × 4-5 cm, depressed-globose, shallowly (3)4(5)-lobed, smooth, glabrous, apple-green with brownish markings; mesocarp c. 3 mm thick, sticky, yellow; pyrenes 3-5, c. 2 × 1.5 cm, strongly carinate, the lateral lobes irregularly crenellate.
Type location:	Zambia
Notes:
Derivation of specific name:	pilosa: covered in long soft hairs
Habitat:	Miombo and mixed deciduous woodlands
Altitude range: (metres)	1050 - 1700 m
Flowering time:	Sep - Nov
Worldwide distribution:	Cameroon, DRC (Katanga), Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia
FZ divisions:	N,W,C,E
Zambian distribution (Provinces):	Nw,Cb,N,Mc
Growth form(s):	Tree.
Endemic status:
Red data list status:
Insects associated with this species:
Spot characters:	Display spot characters for this species
Images last updated:	Tuesday 31 March 2026
Literature:	Meerts, P. & Hasson, M. (2016). Arbres et arbustes du Haut-Katanga Jardin Botanique Meise, Belgique Page 186. as Uapaca pilosa (Includes a picture). Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1996). Euphorbiaceae Flora Zambesiaca 9(4) Pages 94 - 95.

Other sources of information about Uapaca pilosa var. pilosa:

Our websites:

Flora of the DRC: Uapaca pilosa var. pilosa
Flora of Malawi: Uapaca pilosa var. pilosa

External websites:

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

Uapaca pilosa Hutch. var. pilosa