Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Capensis
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Capensis, Vol 4, page 444, (1909) Author: By W. P. HIERN.
Names
EUCLEA ovata Burchell [family EBENACEAE], Trav. S. Afr. i. 387;—Alph. DC. Prodr. viii. 218; Hiern in Trans. Cambr. Phil. Soc. xii. 98; Parmentier in Ann. Univ. Lyon, vi. fasc. ii. 78.
Celastrus crispus Thunb. [family CELASTRACEAE], in Hoffm. Phytogr. Blätt. (i.) 23, and in Roemer, Archiv. Botanik, iii. 429; DC. Prodr. ii. 5; Thunb. Fl. Cap. ed. Schult. 217.
EUCLEA rufescens E. Meyer ex Drège [family EBENACEAE], Cat. Pl. Exsicc. Afr.-Austr. 7, and ex Drège, Zwei Pflanzengeogr. Documente, 57, 130, 184, not 62.
Royena rufescens E. Meyer ex Drège [family EBENACEAE], Zwei Pflanzengeogr. Documente, 154, 217.
EUCLEA ovata Alph. DC. var. β. hispida [family EBENACEAE], Prodr. viii. 218.
EUCLEA crispa Gürke [family EBENACEAE], in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. i. 158.
EUCLEA ovata Marloth forma undulata [family EBENACEAE], in Engl. Jahrb. x. 243.
Information
a densely branched and leafy shrub, with the habit of a myrtle, 3–7 ft. high, pubescent, subferruginous, or sometimes glabrescent; foliage like that of box; leaves opposite or alternate, elliptic or narrowly ovate, acute or apiculate, and obtuse at the apex, mostly obtuse at the base, coriaceous, rigid, rather thick, flat or wavy, minutely crenulate, or quite entire, 1/2–2 in. long, 1/5–1 in. broad; petioles 1/20– 1/8 in. long; cymes axillary, 3–7-flowered, racemose, 3/10– 3/5 in. long, at length drooping; pedicels 1/20– 1/6 in. long; bracts lanceolate, small, deciduous; flowers diœcious or subhermaphrodite, tetramerous, or occasionally pentamerous, pubescent, 1/10– 1/6 in. long, the female flowers nodding; calyx hemispherical, shortly cleft, 1/20– 1/10 in. long; lobes deltoid; corolla campanulate, cleft half-way down or more, twice as long as the calyx, greenish or whitish-herbaceous; lobes broadly ovate or rounded and apiculate, recurved at the apex; stamens 16 or 20–22 in the male flowers, about 12 in the subhermaphrodite, none in the female; filaments short, slender, glabrous; anthers lanceolate, shortly hairy; ovary shortly conical or ovoid, hairy, 2–4-celled; styles 2, or rarely 3, bifid at the apex, glabrous; stigmas trifid, but little exserted; ovules usually 4; fruit globose, dusky or brown, about 1/5 in. in diam., at first pubescent, at length glabrate, edible, the flesh somewhat astringent; seed solitary, comparatively large, sometimes with vestiges of 2 or 3 abortive ovules. null
Distribution
CENTRAL REGION Richmond Div.; Winterveld, near Limoen Fontein and Table Mountain, 3000–4000 ft., Drège! Graaff Reinet Div.; mountains near Graaff Reinet, 3500–3700 ft., Burchell, 2920! Bolus, 572! and in Herb. Norm. Austr.-Afr., 1312! Somerset Div.; upper part of Bruintjes Hoogte, Burchell, 3058–1! 3058–2! 3102!COAST REGION Uitenhage Div.; near the mouth of the Zwartkops River, below 500 ft., Drège.EASTERN REGION Pondoland or Natal; between Umtentu River and Umzimkulu River, below 500 ft., Drège!KALAHARI REGION Griqualand West, Hay Div.; between Griqua Town and Spuigslang Fontein, Burchell, 1706! Bechuanaland; near the sources of Kuruman River, and between them and Kosi Fontein, Burchell, 2542! 2487/2! 2487/7! Orange River Colony; between Kimberley and Boshof, 4200 ft., Marloth, 795. Bloemfontein, Kuntze. Transvaal; Houtbosch, Rehmann, 6053!SOUTH AFRICA without locality, Thunberg.
Notes
E. ovata, γ, glabra, Alph. DC., l.c., is better referred to E. lanceolata, E. Meyer; it was founded on E. rufescens, Drège, Zwei Pflanzengeogr. Documente, 62, not 57, 130. The species varies considerably in the shape of its leaves and in the amount of its pubescence; according to Dr. Bolus, the plant becomes more glabrous as the season advances and the fruit ripens. This, as well as the other species of the genus which bear edible fruits, is called “Guarri” by the Hottentots.