Compilation
Chrysophyllum pruniforme

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Name

Identification
Chrysophyllum pruniforme Pierre ex Engl. [family SAPOTACEAE ] (stored under name); Donella parvifolia Lecomte [family SAPOTACEAE ]
Related name
  • Chrysophyllum mortehanii
  • Chrysophyllum gracile
  • Donella pruniformis
  • Donella parvifolia
  • Chrysophyllum pruniforme
  • Klainedoxa cuprea
  • Klainedoxa gabonensis
  • Donella welwitschii
Common name
  • fira-minikε (S&F) (SIERRA LEONE, KORANKO), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 5
  • he-lahã = elephants eat bark (anon.) hele-lahã elephant’s chew-stick: in allusion to their fondness for the bark (LP fide JMD) soke (def. -ei) (FCD; S&F) sole ( (SIERRA LEONE, MENDE), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 5
  • tεkε-kσne (S&F) tεkenε (S&F) (SIERRA LEONE, KONO), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 5

Flora

Entry for CHRYSOPHYLLUM pentagonocarpum Engl. & Krause [family SAPOTACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1968) Author: J. H. Hemsley
Names
CHRYSOPHYLLUM pentagonocarpum Engl. & Krause [family SAPOTACEAE], in E.J. 49: 387, fig. 2 (1913); Heine in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 2: 26 (1963). Type: Cameroun Republic, Moloundou [Molundu], Mildbraed 4240 (B, holo. †)
CHRYSOPHYLLUM pruniforme [family SAPOTACEAE], [sensu Dale, I.T.U., ed. 2: 395 (1952), pro parte, non Engl.]
Donella pentagonocarpa (Engl. & Krause) Aubrév. & Pellegr. [family SAPOTACEAE], in Not. Syst. 16: 248 (1960); Aubrév., Fl. Gabon 1: 141, t. 25/2 (1961)
Information
Medium to tall tree, height up to 25 m. or more. Young shoots pubescent only in earliest stages; older branches, petioles and leaves practically glabrous. Petiole 5–10 mm. long. Leaf-lamina oblong-elliptic, 7.5–15 cm. long including the acuminate apex, 6 cm. wide, thinly coriaceous, narrowly acuminate, cuneate, slightly asymmetrical, glabrous on both surfaces; lateral nerves very numerous, closely parallel, ± straight and running almost perpendicular to midrib, looped near margin. Flowers small, clustered in current leaf axils; pedicels slender, up to 5 mm. long, glabrous or puberulous. Sepals free to base, suborbicular, up to 2 mm. long, puberulous externally. Corolla tube ± 1 mm. long; lobes ± truncate, up to 1 mm. long, ciliate. Filaments up to 1.5 mm. long, flattened; staminodes absent. Ovary subconical, densely pilose, tapering to a short thick ± 1 mm. long style. Fruit shortly stalked, subglobose, to 9 cm. in diameter. Seeds large, ± ellipsoid, but straight along one margin and laterally compressed, up to 5.5 cm. long, 3 cm. wide and 2 cm. thick; scar lateral on straight margin, narrowly elliptic.
Range
DISTR. U2
Altitude range
± 1500 m.
Distribution
UGANDA Toro District Itwara Forest, Dec. 1943 (fr.), Eggeling 5488 !
Distribution (external)
Ivory Coast
Ghana
Nigeria
Cameroun Republic
Gabon
Congo Republic
Notes
No mature flowers of this species have been seen from East Africa. Leaves are very similar to those of C. pruniforme Engl. or C. viridifolium Wood & Franks, but the fruits are large and about the size of an orange and contain the largest seeds found in any East African species of Chrysophyllum. The tree would appear to be rare and to be confined to a single forest in W. Uganda; material is very scarce and further collecting is much to be desired. Professor Aubréville, in Adansonia 3: 231 (1962) & Fl. Cameroun 2: 120 (1964), places this species in the synonymy of Donella ubangiensis (De Wild.) Aubrév. (Mimusops ubangiensis De Wild.). Mimusops ubangiensis was described in Miss. Emile Laurent 1: 434, fig. 81 (1907) from seeds alone. Despite the characteristic form of the seeds of Chrysophyllum pentagonocarpum among the known species of the genus, the author hesitates to accept the synonymy of the two names on this evidence alone.

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