Compilation
Ochna braunii
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Name
Identification
Isotype of Ochna braunii Verd. [family OCHNACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Verdcourt B, 2004
Related name
- Ochna braunii
Flora
Entry for Ochna braunii Sleumer [family OCHNACEAE]
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, (2005) Author: B. Verdcourt, B.Sc., Ph.D.
Names
Ochna braunii Sleumer [family OCHNACEAE], in F.R. 39: 276 (1938); T.T.C.L.: 383 (1949). Type: Tanzania, Lindi District: Rondo–Lutamba, Braun 1209 (B†, holo., EA!, iso.)
Information
Shrub 1–2 m tall; branches with rugose grey-brown bark; young shoots purplish and lenticellate. Leaves lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, rigidly chartaceous, 5.5–8(–10.5) cm long, 1.2–2.5 cm wide, acute at apex, widest at the middle, attenuate at base, margin densely regularly serrate-dentate, the teeth 0.5 mm long, 2–3 mm apart; midrib prominent on both surfaces; other venation obscure above but minutely prominent beneath; petiole 4 mm long. Flowers 2–9 in ± abbreviated axillary cymes towards the end of the lateral branches; pedicels slender, 1–1.5 cm long in flowering state but eventually elongating to 2.3 cm, jointed at the base. Sepals red, elongate-ovate, 1 cm long, 4 mm wide. Sepals oblong-elliptic, up to 1.5 cm long, 5 mm wide. Petals oblong-spathulate, 13–20 mm long, 7–13 mm wide. Anthers 6–7 mm long, opening by apical pores; filaments 1.5–4 mm long. Styles 8–13 mm long, free at the apex. Drupelets 1–2, black, ellipsoid, 8 mm long, 5–5.5 mm wide.
Range
DISTR. T 8 not known elsewhere
Altitude range
500 m
Distribution
TANZANIA Lindi District Rondo-Lutamba, 13 June 1906, Braun 1209! & Rondo Plateau [Mwera Plateau], ± 50 km W of Lindi, Schlieben 6530 & Rondo Plateau, St. Ciprian’s College, 2 June 2001, Anthony 26!
Notes
Sleumer states this species resembles O. kirkii Oliv. but can be distinguished from it by the absence of a long drawn-out leaf apex. At first I was not satisfied with the taxonomy of this species. Study of the EA isotype, which Sleumer would not have seen, reveals a number of discrepancies when compared with Sleumer’s description. The EA isotype has no young flowers and it is almost certain the Berlin holotype would have had none either in which case anther, petal and young sepal information would have been derived from Schlieben 6530 of which I have been unable to find a duplicate. The persistent filaments in Braun 1209 are 4 mm long not 1.5 mm and the persistent styles 12 mm not 8. Brother J. Anthony’s flowering specimen shows this is within the variation possible in this species. Braun 1209 had been first identified as Ochna holstii by some German worker at Amani against which Greenway has written a firm ‘not’. He was of course familiar with the tall timber tree in the East Usambaras but Robson has accepted shrubby forms.