Home | > | List of families | > | Rubiaceae | > | Multidentia | > | crassa |
Synonyms: |
Canthium crassum Hiern Canthium dictyophlebum S. Moore Canthium opimum S. Moore Craterispermum orientale K. Schum. Plectronia opima (S. Moore) Mildbr. |
Common names: | |
Frequency: | |
Status: | Native |
Description: |
Shrub or small tree, bark almost black or rough grey, peeling to expose a reddish undersurface; branches stout with often powdery white-grey or straw-coloured corky bark; copious sap present, sometimes apparently milky. Leaves mostly restricted to apices of branches; oblong-elliptic to oblong or sometimes round, 3–27.5 cm long, rather fleshy or more or less leathery, often drying yellow-green and mostly markedly paler and blue-green beneath, hairless except for hair-tuft domatia beneath; petioles 3–25 mm long; stipules with broad basal part 3.5–5 mm long and subulate apex 1.5–7.5 mm long. Flowers 5-merous, borne in axillary many-flowered inflorescences, mostly pubescent and sometimes densely woolly; peduncle 10–50 mm long; pedicels 1–3 mm long; bracts 3–5 mm long, linear. Corolla greenish-yellow, fleshy, thick, wrinkled when dry; tube 2.5–4.5 mm long, pilose at throat and with a ring of deflexed hairs one third of the way from the top; lobes narrowly triangular, 3 mm long. Fruit depressed globose, 35–40 mm wide, covered in lenticels, green mottled brown, yellow or dull red or brown spotted white, fleshy and edible |
Type location: |
Sudan |
Notes: | |
Derivation of specific name: | |
Habitat: | In Brachystegia woodland, or less often in open bushland with scattered trees or at forest edges, often on rocky outcrops. |
Altitude range: | 600 - 1675 m |
Flowering time: | |
Worldwide distribution: | Angola, Shaba Province DRC, Burundi, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi,Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. |
Zambian distribution (Flora Zambesiaca): | N,W,C,E |
Zambian distribution (Provinces): | Nw,Cb,N,E,C,Lk |
Growth form(s): | |
Endemic status: | |
Red data list status: | |
Insects associated with this species: | |
Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
Content last updated: | Monday 7 November 2022 |
Literature: |
Bridson, D.M. (1998). Rubiaceae, Part 2 Flora Zambesiaca 5(2) Pages 312 - 314. (Includes a picture). Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 245. (Includes a picture). Burrows, J.E., Burrows, S.M., Lötter, M.C. & Schmidt, E. (2018). Trees and Shrubs Mozambique Publishing Print Matters (Pty), Cape Town. Page 941. (Includes a picture). Coates Palgrave, K. (revised and updated by Meg Coates Palgrave) (2002). Trees of Southern Africa 3rd edition. Struik, South Africa Page 1103. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 72. Phiri, P.S.M. (2005). A Checklist of Zambian Vascular Plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 32 Page 90. |
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