Edit History
DIOSPYROS mespiliformis A. DC. [family EBENACEAE]
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
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, (1996) Author: F. White and B. Verdcourt
Names
DIOSPYROS mespiliformis A. DC. [family EBENACEAE], in DC., Prodr. 8: 672 (1844); Hiern in Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 12: 165 (1873) & in F.T.A. 3: 518 (1877); P.O.A. C: 305 (1895); Sim, For. Fl. Port. E. Afr.: 82 (1909); Gürke in E.J. 43: 200, t. 1 (1909); R.E. Fr., Wiss. Ergebn. Schwed. Rhod.-Kongo-Exped. 1: 257 (1916); Steedman, Trees Shrubs Lianes S. Rhod.: 63 (1933); T.T.C.L.: 186 (1949); Gomes & Sousa, Dendrol. Mozamb., Commerc. Timbers: 154, t. on 155 (1951); F.P.S. 2: 367, fig. 136 (1952); Williamson, Useful Pl. Nyasaland: 49 (1955); K.T.S.: 173 (1961); F. White, F.F.N.R.: 328, t. 58G-H (1962) & in Syst. Assoc. Publ. 4: 88-96, t. 8, 10, 11 (1962) & in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 2: 12 (1963); Gomes e Sousa, Dendrol. Moçamb., Estudo Geral 2: 629, photo. on 590, t. 194 (1966); F. White & Letouzey, Fl. Cameroun 11 & Fl. Gabon 18: 110, t. 16/1-12 (1970); Palmer & Pitman, Trees Southern Afr. 3: 1793, t. & photo (1973); F. White in B.J.B.B. 48: 352 (1978); Vollesen in Opera Bot. 59: 31 (1980); F. White in F.Z. 7(1): 286, t. 65C (1983) & F.A.C., Ebenaceae: 87, t. 17M-Q (1987) & in B.J.B.B. 58: 414, fig. 19, 20 & 21/2-12 (1988); K. Coates Palgrave, Trees Southern Afr., ed. 3, revised: 748, t. 245 (1990); Beentje, K.T.S.L.: 447 (1994). Type: Ethiopia, Tigre, Djeladjeranne, Schimper 655 (G, lecto.!, BM, BR, K, L, M, OXF, P, TCD, W, isolecto.!)
DIOSPYROS holtzii Gürke [family EBENACEAE], in E.J. 46: 156 (1911); T.T.C.L.: 185 (1949), pro parte quoad typum solum. Type: Tanzania, Uzaramo District, Mogo Forest Reserve [Sachsenwald], Holtz 311 (B, syn.†; EA, lecto.! chosen here)
DIOSPYROS kilimandscharica Gürke [family EBENACEAE], in E.J. 46: 157 (1911); T.T.C.L.: 185 (1949). Type: Tanzania, Kilimanjaro area, below Moshi, Engler 1868 (B, holo.† )
Information
Evergreen tree 5-27(-35) (exceptionally 45) m. tall, with spreading densely rounded crown, but occasionally flowering as a shrub only 1-3 m. tall; has been described as mango-like with leaves near the ground, bole 1.5 m. and crown 7.5 m.; d.b.h. 38-60 cm. and presumably more; bark blackish or dark brown, very rough, longitudinally channelled, flaking in irregular scales; slash pinkish brown or black outside, pink inside ( fide F.W.T.A.); branchlets knobby, tomentellous with pinkish adpressed hairs when young, glabrescent. Leaves drying pale reddish brown when young, dull grey-green above and yellowish green beneath when old, mostly narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong-elliptic or oblong to oblanceolate-elliptic, 3.5-19 cm. long, 1.5-7.5 cm. wide, mostly acute to subacuminate, less often obtuse or rounded at the apex, cuneate to rounded at the base, subcoriaceous, minutely strigulose puberulous with adpressed and spreading flexuose hairs beneath; lateral nerves 15-20 pairs, ascending at 45°, indistinct, together with the tertiary nerves and venation forming a reticulum ± prominent on both sides; petiole 7-10 mm. long, the margins ± revolute. Male flowers subsessile in 3’ s on peduncles 4-6 mm. long arising from the axils of deciduous reduced leaves at the base of the current year’ s growth or of the first-formed normal leaves; flower-buds adpressed silvery-silky velvety; calyx 3 mm. long; calyx-lobes 4-5, triangular, 1.5 mm. long; corolla white or greenish yellow, sweetly scented, narrowly urceolate, 6 mm. long, sericeous-tomentose outside; corolla-tube 5 mm. long, glabrous inside and thickened at the throat; corolla-lobes 4-5, triangular, 1 mm. long; stamens ± 14, 4 mm. long, included; filaments 1 mm. long, glabrous, inserted on the receptacle; anthers narrowly lanceolate, apiculate, glabrous except for a few hairs on the connective; rudimentary ovary minute, tomentose. Female flowers subsessile, solitary or rarely 2-3 together, in the axils of reduced leaves at the base of the current year’ s shoot; calyx and corolla similar to the male but calyx 8 mm. long and lobes triangular-cordate with undulate-plicate reflexed margins; corolla 1-1.2 cm. long; staminodes 6-12, filiform, 4 mm. long, glabrous, inserted at the base of the corolla; ovary 3 mm. in diameter with style scarcely differentiated; locules 4 or 6; stigma sessile. Fruit yellow, globose, 1.5-2.5 cm. diameter, shiny, verruculose, at first adpressed ferruginous hairy, at length glabrous save for a few hairs near the base of the persistent style, soft, edible with ± dry sweet flesh; calyx patelliform or slightly cyathiform, the lobes with recurved strongly undulate margins. Seeds 3-6, reddish brown or dark, compressed oblong-ellipsoid, ± 10 × 6.5 × 4.5 mm., rugulose when dry; the endosperm deeply ruminate. Fig. 3/27.
Range
DISTR. U 1, 2, 3 (Teso, in White notes); K 2, 4 (Meru, Machakos, Kitui), 7; T 2-8; Z widespread in tropical Africa from Senegal to Angola and across to Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Yemen, south to S. Mozambique, South Africa (Transvaal) and Namibia but absent from all but the northern fringes of the Guineo-Congolian Region; also in U 4 but almost certainly introduced; has been cultivated in W. Australia
Altitude range
0-1500 m.
Distribution
UGANDA W. Nile District Uratsi Peak, 28 Mar 1945, Greenway & Eggeling 7260!;KENYA Turkana District Oropoi R., Brasnett 128!;TANZANIA Moshi District Uru E. road, near Moshi, 11 Dec. 1968, Carmichael 1621!;UGANDA Karamoja District Moroto Mt., Nakiloro valley, Nov. 1963, J. Wilson 1576!;UGANDA Bunyoro District Lake Albert Escarpment, above Butiaba, May 1935, Eggeling 2000!KENYA Machakos District W. end of Kibwezi Forest along Nairobi-Mombasa road, 15 Jan. 1972, R.B. & A.J. Faden 72/77!;KENYA Kwale District Mrima Hill to Marenje Forest, 8 Mar. 1977, R.B. & A.J. Faden 77/723!TANZANIA Handeni District Misufini, Oct. 1950, Semsei 572!;TANZANIA Tabora District Ugalla R., Isimbira [Isimbila], 24 Oct. 1920, Richards 13405!;TANZANIA Iringa District Ruaha R., 4 km. W. of Mtera bridge, 14 Aug. 1970, Thulin & Mhoro 739!;TANZANIA Zanzibar Kandwi Ridge, 2 July 1933, Vaughan 2120!
Notes
A very widely distributed SPECIES with a corresponding great variation in its ecological preferences. It yields a hard strong durable timber used for numerous household objects, also rifle-butts, joinery, cabinet making etc.; larger trees have been used to make canoes and for wagons etc. Extensive details of its distribution, ecology and uses will be found in B.J.B.B. 58: 414-430 (1988). The wood is white or pale yellowish pink but some trees produce a black hard wood (‘ ebony’ ) particularly in Nigeria. Hornby 921 (Tanzania, Mpwapwa, 7 Sept. 1938) has one extraordinary leaf with the midrib divided from halfway up and the leaf bilobed for 1.5 cm. with two distinct apices. For intermediates with D. kirkii see at end of that SPECIES (p. 39). Busse 2418 (Tanzania, Lindi) a syntype of D. holtzii Gürke is such a specimen.
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