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Homalium dentatum [family SALICACEAE]

Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Homalium dentatum [family SALICACEAE]
Common names
Blackwellia dentata Harv. in F.C. 2: 585 (1862). Type as for H. dentatum. Homalium subsuperum Sprague in Kew Bull. 1923: 184 (1923); Gilg in Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 21: 427 (1925). Henkel, Woody PI. Natal 86 (1934). Type: Cape, Ndindini Forest, Transkei, Kaufmann sub PRF3225 (subPRE 2571) (K, holo!; PRE!).
Information
Tree 6-30 m high; branchlets glabrous or tomentulose. Leaf-blade broadly elliptic, 5,5-10 cm long, 3,5-7 cm wide, apex abruptly acuminate often with oblique point, obtuse or rounded, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin crenate-serrate, midrib and lateral veins fairly prominent below, lateral veins 5-8, Vi-angled, looping near margin, coriaceous, glabrous or tomentulose, often with tufts of hair in lower axils; petioles up to 2,2 cm long, glabrous or tomentulose. Inflores­cence of axillary and terminal panicles, divari­cately branched; peduncles 2,5-4 cm long, glabrous or puberulous; pedicels 0,2-2 mm long, puberulous. Calyx-tube puberulous; sepals 6-8, narrowly elliptic, 1,2-1,75 cm long, 0,3-0,7 mm wide, puberulous to tomentulose; glands adnate to base of sepals, round, sessile, brown, tomentulose. Petals 6-8, elliptic, 1,5-1,8 mm long, 0,8-1,2 mm wide, puberulous to tomentulose. Stamens 6-8, terete, 0,2-0,4 mm long. Ovary narrowly conical, 1,2 mm long, tomentulose; styles 3 or 4, joined at base, with
Habitat
The leaves of young coppice shoots are much thinner than the adult leaves, the petioles are shorter and the hairy pockets in the leaf axils are more conspicuous. In the southern part of the Kruger National Park there is a form with densely tomentulose leaves and branchlets represented by Codd 5257, Codd & De Winter 5161, Van der Schijff '2507, etc. This form resembles H. chasei Wild from Rhodesia in its pubescence, but has the paniculate inflorescence of//, dentatum. According to a note on Hutchinson 1848 the flowers of//, dentatum '' smell like sweet chestnut."
Use
1. Homalium dentatum (Harv.) Warb. in Pflanzenfam. 3,6a: 36 (1893); Engl., Pfanzenw. Afr. 3,2: 581 (1921); Gilg in Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 21: 427 (1925); Wild in F.Z. 1: 289 (1960); Sleumerin Bull. Jard. Bot. Belg. 43: 239 (1973); Wild & Vidigal, Fl. Mocamb. Flacourt. 31 (1973). Type: Natal, "near Port Natal", Gerrard & McKen 50 (TCD, holo.!; PRE, photo.).
Range
Found in scrub and forest in the Transvaal, Natal, eastern Cape, Rhodesia, Malawi and Swaziland.
Homalium dentatum [family SALICACEAE]
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