Entry From
FZ, Vol 9, Part 4, (1996) Author: A. Radcliffe-Smith
Names
Bridelia cathartica G.Bertol. [family EUPHORBIACEAE], in Mem. Reale Accad. Sci. Ist. Bologna 5: 476, t. 28 (1854). —Müller Argoviensis in De Candolle, Prodr. 15, 2: 502 (1866). —Engler, Pflanzenw. Ost-Afrikas C: 237 (1895). —Sim, For. Fl. Port. E. Afr.: 106 (1909). —Hutchinson in F.T.A. 6, 1: 617 (1912). —Jablonszky in Engler, Pflanzenr. [IV, fam. 147, viii] 65: 61 (1915). —Hutchinson in F.C. 5, 2: 380 (1915). —Eyles in Trans. Roy. Soc. South Africa 5: 394 (1916). —Engler, Pflanzenw. Afrikas 3, 2: 43 (1921). —Burtt Davy, Fl. Pl. Ferns Transvaal, part 2: 298 (1932). —O.B. Miller, Check-list For. Trees Shrubs Bech. Prot.: 31 (1948). —Brenan in Mem. N.Y. Bot. Gard. 9, 1: 67 (1954). —J. Léonard in Bull. Jard. Bot. État 25: 360 (1955). —Topham, Check List For. Trees Shrubs Nyasaland Prot.: 49 (1958). —White, F.F.N.R.: 194 (1962). —Mogg in Macnae & Kalk, Nat. Hist. Inhaca Isl., Moçamb., rev. ed.: 147 (1969). —Drummond in Kirkia 10: 251 (1975). —K. Coates Palgrave, Trees Southern Africa, ed. 2, rev.: 412 (1983). —Radcliffe-Smith in F.T.E.A., Euphorb. 1: 123 (1987). —Beentje, Kenya Trees, Shrubs Lianas: 187 (1994). Type: Mozambique, Inhambane, 1842, Fornasini s.n. (BOLO†, holotype; B†; P).
Information
A rather variable scrambling single- or many-stemmed much branched shrub or small tree up to 7 m tall with a dense rounded crown and with horizontal or pendent branches.Bark light grey or brownish, smooth or rough, fissured.Twigs brown, lenticellate.Young shoots and petioles evenly to sparingly pubescent, puberulous or subglabrous.Petioles 2–5 mm long.Stipules up to 7 × 1 mm, linear-lanceolate or linear, sparingly pubescent or subglabrous, soon falling.Leaf blades 1–12 × 0.5–7 cm, elliptic-obovate to elliptic-oblong, rounded or obtuse, occasionally subacute, cuneate or rounded, rarely ± truncate at the base, margins sometimes revolute, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, glabrous above, evenly to sparingly pubescent along the midrib and nerves or else subglabrous to quite glabrous beneath, often bluish-green and shiny above, pale grey-green to glaucous and dull beneath; lateral nerves in 7–14 pairs, cheilodromous or brochidodromous, occasionally camptodromous, not prominent or slightly impressed above, slightly to strongly prominent beneath, tertiary nerves scarcely visible to prominent beneath.Flowers and fruits borne on leafy or wholly or partially leafless shoots.Male flowers sweetly-scented; pedicels very short or 0; sepals 2 × 1–1.5 mm, triangular-ovate, acute, glabrous, pale yellowish-green; petals 1×1 mm, flabelliform, erose at apex, pale greenish- or creamy-yellow; disk 1.75 mm in diameter, flat, entire, greenish; staminal column 1.25 mm high, greenish; anthers 0.67 mm long, yellow; pistillode 0.75 mm tall, conic-cylindric, deeply bifid.Female flowers sessile or subsessile; sepals ± as in the male, but somewhat thicker; petals c. 1 × 1 mm, rhombic-obovate, subentire; outer disk 2 mm in diameter, pentagonal, inner of 3 lobes c. 1 mm high, each lobe ± triangular, toothed; ovary c. 1 × 0.75 mm, ovoid, 2-locular; styles 2, 1 mm long, free, shortly bifid, stigmas uneven, greenish.Fruit 6–11 × 7–10 mm when dried, subglobose, 2-locular, green at first, later becoming reddish-purple then blackish.Seeds 7 × 6 × 3 mm, smooth, shiny, chestnut-brown.