Entry From
FZ, Vol 1, Part 1, page 104, (1960) Author: N. K. B. Robson
Names
Xylopia gossweileri Exell [family ANNONACEAE], in Journ. of Bot. 64, Suppl. Polypet.: 6 (1926); op. cit. 70, Suppl. Polypet.: 212 (1932). — Exell & Mendonça, C.F.A. 1, 1: 20 (1937). Type from Angola (Cabinda).
Xylopia humilis Engl. & Diels [family ANNONACEAE], tom. cit.: t. 21 B (1901). Type from Liberia.
Xylopia butayei De Wild. [family ANNONACEAE], in Ann. Mus. Cong., Bot., Sér. 4, 1: 33 (1902). Type from the Belgian Congo.
Xylopia rubescens Oliv. [family ANNONACEAE], F.T.A. 1: 30 (1868). — Engl. & Diels in Engl., Mon. Afr. Pflanz. 6: 60 (1901). — Pellegrin in Mém. Soc. Bot. Fr. 31: 70 (1950). — Boutique, F.C.B. 2: 322 (1951). — Keay, F.W.T.A. ed. 2, 1 1: 41 (1954). TAB. 14 fig. B. Type from Nigeria.
Xylopia zenkeri Engl. & Diels [family ANNONACEAE], in Engl., Bot. Jahrb. 39: 480 (1907). Type from fr. Cameroons.
Information
Tree 4.5–20 (30) m. high, erect, or rarely ± straggling, with smooth pale grey bark and numerous stilt roots. Branches greyish-fawn to red-brown or dark-brown, markedly rugose, soon glabrous; lenticels few, not conspicuous. Leaves petiolate; lamina (7) 9–21.5 x (3.5) 4–8.4 cm., oblong or elliptic to oblanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, obtuse or ± abruptly acuminate at the apex, cuneate to rounded and decurrent at the base, coriaceous, bluish-green and glabrous above, orange or brick-coloured and shortly appressed-pubescent or glabrescent below, with densely reticulate venation prominent on both sides; petiole 5–18 mm. long, often blackish, appressed-pubescent or glabrescent. Flowers solitary or in 2–5-flowered fasciculate cymes; pedicels 4–6 mm. long, appressed-rusty-pubescent; bracteoles 2–5, ± oblong. Sepals 2–4 mm. long, ovate-triangular, acute or apiculate, appressed-pubescent outside, glabrous and crimson within. Petals very unequal, the outer ones 2.6–3.7 x 0.3–0.4 cm., orange-yellow when mature, crimson at the base within, linear, triquetrous above, ± concave at the base, sericeo-pubescent outside, puberulous above and glabrous below within, the inner ones 0.4–0.6 cm. long, crimson, rhomboid to oblanceolate, apiculate, concave, carinate, sericeo-pubescent above outside, otherwise glabrous. Stamens c. 2 mm. long, linear; connective-prolongation obliquely capitate, papillose. Carpels 8–11, c. 4 mm. long; ovary cylindric, appressed-pilose with simple or forked hairs, 9–10-ovulate; style as long as the ovary, cylindric. Fruit on a pedicel 10–15 mm. long; fruiting carpels 1–11, 2–7 x 0.8–1.2 cm., 1–8-seeded, curved-cylindric, apiculate, ± constricted between the seeds, glabrescent, finely rugose, green, narrowing into stipes 5–10 mm. long. Seeds 10–12 mm. long, cylindric or globose, red-brown, vertical, with aril 2–4 mm. long formed of numerous filaments.
Distribution
Zambia W Mwinilunga, 6·7 km. N. of Kalene Hill Mission, fl. 20.ix.1952, White 3309 (FHO; K).Zambia N Abercorn Distr., Lunzua Falls, fl. 26.x.1952, Robertson 184 (BM; K; PRE; SRGH).