Compilation
Gambeya africana

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Name

Identification
Gambeya africana (A.DC.) Pierre [family SAPOTACEAE ] Chrysophyllum delevoyi De Wild. [family SAPOTACEAE ] (stored under name); Chrysophyllum africanum A.DC. [family SAPOTACEAE ]
Related name
  • Chrysophyllum africanum
  • Chrysophyllum delevoyi
  • Chrysophyllum macrophyllum
  • Gambeya africana

Flora

Entry for CHRYSOPHYLLUM delevoyi De Wild. [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 delevoyi De Wild. [family SAPOTACEAE], Pl. Bequaert. 4: 126 (1926); Heine in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 2: 28 (1963); J. H. Hemsl. in K.B. 20: 461–465 (1966). Type Congo Republic, Katanga, Nzawa, Delevoy 415 (BR, holo. !, K, photo. !)
CHRYSOPHYLLUM africanum [family SAPOTACEAE], [sensu Baker in F.T.A. 3: 500 (1877); Engl., E.M. 8: 43, t. 15/A (1904); F.W.T.A. 2: 10 (1931), ? sensu A. DC. (1844), nomen dubium ]
Gambeya africana [family SAPOTACEAE], [sensu Pierre, Not. Bot. Sapot.: 63 (1891); Aubrév. in Not. Syst. 16: 247 (1960) & Fl. Gabon 1: 133 (1961) & Fl. Cameroun 2: 114, t. 25/1–5 (1964)]
Planchonella africana [family ], [sensu Baehni in Boissiera 11: 68 (1965)]
Information
Tall to medium-sized tree, height up to 25 m. or more, with spreading crown; bole fluted and buttressed at base. Young branchlets, buds and petioles with appressed greyish-brown to deep reddish-brown pubescence. Petiole 1.5–3.5 cm. long. Leaf-lamina elliptic to obovate-oblong, 13–25(–30) cm. long, 4.5–8.5(–10) cm. wide, acuminate, cuneate; upper surface glabrous, lower surface with closely appressed pubescence of short straight hairs, colour varying from pale greyish-brown to deep red-brown; midrib and lateral nerves strongly raised, primary nerves (15-)20–25(–30) each side, ascending, looped near margin. Flowers clustered in current leaf axils or on warty projections on older branches; pedicels up to 4.5 mm. long; calyx and pedicels with ferrugineous pubescence. Sepals broadly ovate, up to 4 mm. long and 3 mm. wide. Corolla creamy-white; tube up to 3 mm. long; lobes ± 2 mm. long, apex rounded, densely ciliate. Filaments up to 2.5 mm. long, flattened; small subulate staminodes occasionally present. Ovary subcorneal, densely pilose; style tapering, up to 3 mm. long. Fruit shortly pedicellate, orange to orange-yellow when mature, ovoid or ± pyriform to subglobose, up to 6 cm. in diameter, sometimes narrowed at each end, subglabrous. Seeds shiny brown, obliquely elliptic, laterally compressed, up to 3.5 cm. long, 2 cm. wide.
Range
DISTR. U4 widely distributed in West Africa, Cameroun Republic, Gabon, Angola (Cabinda Province) and Congo Republic, becoming less common towards the east and so far recorded with certainty from Uganda only
Altitude range
± 1200–1400 m.
Distribution
UGANDA Mengo District near Nansagazi, Nakiza Forest, 24 Jan. 1951 (fl.), Dawkins 700!
Notes
The species may occur in the Kakamega Forest of Kenya (a single leaf having been seen from this locality) and possibly in other lowland forests. Complete gatherings, including mature fruit, are necessary for a more conclusive determination. There is evidence of selection of favoured varieties in West Africa and one may reasonably anticipate the establishment of cultivar strains with a consequent increase in the diversity of fruit characters.The doubt which surrounds the typification of the familiar name C. africanum, and necessitates the adoption of another name, is discussed in K.B. 20: 461–465 (1966).

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