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Grewia retinervis Burret [family TILIACEAE]

Date Updated: 26 July 2007

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 2, Part 1, page 33, (1963) Author: H. Wild
Names
Grewia pilosa [family TILIACEAE], sensu Eyles in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 5: 411 (1916). Grewia retinervis Burret [family TILIACEAE], in Engl., Bot. Jahrb. 45: 170 (1910) pro parte quoad specim. Baum. excl. specim. Dinter. — Burtt Davy, F.P.F.T. 1: 255 (1926). — O. B. Mill. in Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 18: 53 (1952). Type from Angola (Bié). Grewia flavescens [family TILIACEAE], sensu Exell and Mendonça, C.F.A. 1, 2: 221 (1951) pro parte.
Information
Small shrub 1–2 m. tall, usually branching low down; young sterns brownish-pubescent or glabrescent; older branches not becoming 4-angled and grooved. Leaf-lamina 2–5 × 1–2·75 cm., elliptic-oblong, acute or rounded at the apex, with margins serrate, rounded at the base, sparsely pubescent above or glabrous; nerves reticulate on both sides, slightly pubescent below; petiole 1–3 mm. long, pubescent; stipules c. 2·5 mm. long, subulate, pubescent. Inflorescences all axillary; peduncles 3–6 mm. long, pubescent; pedicels 2–3 together, 2–4 mm. long, pubescent; basal bracts c. 2 mm. long, entire, lanceolate-triangular, pubescent. Flower-buds oblong, somewhat sulcate. Sepals 6–8 × 1 mm., lorate, appressed-pubescent outside, glabrous within. Petals yellow, 5–7 × 1·5 mm., narrowly oblong or lorate, with a basal nectariferous claw 1 mm. long and circumvillous within. Androgynophore 1 mm. long, glabrous, not extended above the node, rather cupular at the apex and clasping the ovary-base. Ovary appressed-pubescent, never lobed; style 8–9 mm. long, glabrous; stigmas usually 4, subulate. Fruit shining, reddish-brown, c. 8 mm. in diam., globose, never lobed, minutely and sparsely stellate-pubescent.
Habitat
Open woodland, common on Kalahari Sand formations.
Distribution
Zimbabwe S Nuanetsi, fl. xii.1955, Davies 1856 (SRGH).Zimbabwe C Vungu Native Purchase Area, Gwelo Distr., fl. i.1960, Davies 2669 (SRGH).Zambia S Namwala, fr. 11.vi.1949, Hornby 3014 (SRGH).Botswana SW Ghanzi, fr. 11.vi.1955, Story 4875 (K; PRE).Botswana SE Artesia, fr. 12.iv.1931, Pole Evans 3168 (PRE; SRGH).Zambia B Sesheke, fl. i.1922, Borle 329 (PRE; SRGH).Zimbabwe W Victoria Falls, fr. 4–6.v.1948, Rodin 4488 (K; PRE; SRGH).Botswana N Chobe-Zambezi confluence, fl. 11.iv.1955, E.M. & W. 1464 (BM; LISC; SRGH).Caprivi Strip Katima Mulilo area. fl. 24.xii.1958, Killick & Leistner 3089 (PRE; SRGH).
Distribution (external)
Transvaal SW. Africa Angola
Notes
This species has, by a number of botanists, been treated as a form of G. flavescens Juss. However, the fact that the fruits are always 1-lobed, the leaves almost glabrous and the older branches rounded rather than 4-sided relates this species rather to G.carpinifolia Juss. than to G. flavescens, if one follows the criteria used by Keay in F.W.T.A. ed, 2 (1958) to separate these last two species. Ecologically, as a small bush of dry Kalahari conditions, it is readily separated from G.carpinifolia, which is a forest species, but, like a number of other species such as Combretum platypetalum Welw. and Dichapetalum cymosum (Hook.) Engl., which are also plants of the open woodlands of our area, it may have evolved from a liane-like forest ancestor. All these plants are most nearly related to other species in the same genera which are forest scramblers or lianes. For these reasons G.retinervis is once more treated as a distinct species and, under our conditions at least, its rather dwarf habit, apart from the other characters mentioned, renders it readily distinguishable from the larger G. flavescens. The Dinter specimen from SW. Africa cited by Burret as G.retinervis is G. flavescens.
Grewia retinervis Burret [family TILIACEAE]
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