Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1998) Author: DAVIES & B. VERDCOURT
Names
LECANIODISCUS fraxinifolius Baker [family SAPINDACEAE], in F.T.A. 1: 429 (1868), as ‘ fraxinifolia ’; Radlk. in E.P. IV, 165: 881 (1932); T.T.C.L.: 558 (1949); K.T.S.: 514 (1961); F.F.N.R.: 225 (1962); Exell in F.Z. 2: 530, t. 111 (1966); Hamilton, Field Guide Uganda For. Trees: 223 (1981); Friis in K.B. 39: 781 (1984); Vollesen in Fl. Ethiopia 3: 504 (1990); Beentje, K.T.S.L.: 420, map & fig. (1994). Types: Mozambique, Sena, Kirk & Malawi, Shire R., Kirk (both K!, syn.)
Range
DISTR. (of species as a whole) U 1, 3; K 3–5, 7; T 1–3, 6; Z 7
Notes
ON GALLS. This species is well known for its galls. I am not aware if anyone knows what causes them. There are three types (see fig. 14); one with ± 11 linear-triangular organs protruding from an annulus (according to my colleague B. Spooner caused by a scale insect); another begins as a ball, splits into four parts and a dense tuft of fine rusty filaments is produced (Spooner suggests this is produced by a cecidomyiid midge). The third is similar but smaller. In Uganda and western Kenya and Tanzania only the first occurs but on the coast both this and the second type occur often on the same leaflet but the fluffy one is much more in evidence and sometimes extremely abundant. The third sort is known only in subsp. fraxinifolius. The distribution of the galls in the eastern parts of Kenya and Tanzania is inextricably mixed up with the merging of the subspecies and a precise study might throw light on the genetic make up of the populations.