Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Common names
S. petersianus var. grandiflorus N. E. Br. in Kew Bull. 1892: 126 (1892), partly, as to the Monteiro specimen from Delagoa Bay (K). S. grandiflorus (N. E. Br.) Gilg in Bot. Jahrb. 32: 161 (1902), partly; Stapf in F.C. 4, 1: 510 (1907).
Habitat
S. petersianus varies a good deal in size of leaf and flower, and in stature. On the sand dunes near Delagoa Bay it is a much-branched shrub with slender straggling branches and usually large leaves and flowers; this is the form described as S. petersianus var. grandiflorus N. E. Br., but there is a range of variation linking it with the typical, inland form occurring in dry woodland, which has smaller leaves and flowers. Gerstner 6578, which lacks flowers, is described as a liane of 13-17 m. This specimen has oblong-elliptic, acuminate leaves up to 11 cm long; the fruit accompanying the specimen appears to be identical with S. petersianus, however, and so the specimen is included here.
Use
2. Strophanthus petersianus Klotzsch in Peters, Reise Mossamb. Bot. 276 (1861); StapfinF.T.A.4, 1: 182(1902); Codd, Bot. Surv. S. Afr. Mem. 26: 158(1951). Type: Portuguese East Africa, Tete, Peters s.n.
Range
Found in lowveld woodland, usually on dry rocky situations but also on coastal sand dunes and in coastal scrub forest, in north-eastern Transvaal and northern Zululand. The main distribution of the species is in Portuguese East Africa and Rhodesia.