Entandrophragma caudatum | |
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Hooker’s Icones Plantarum, vol. 31: t. 3023 (1915) by Matilda Smith | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Sapindales |
Family: | Meliaceae |
Genus: | Entandrophragma |
Species: | E. caudatum |
Binomial name | |
Entandrophragma caudatum Thomas Archibald Sprague (1910) | |
Entandrophragma caudatum, or mountain mahogany, is a large Southern African tree belonging to the mahogany family and found in eastern and north eastern South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana, Angola, the Caprivi Strip region of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Kew currently recognises 12 other species of Entandrophragma, all with a tropical and sub-tropical African distribution. [2]
This is a large deciduous tree up to 20m in height, found at low altitudes in river valleys, but also in open woodland on rocky slopes and ridges. Bark is grey, flaking in large, irregular scales and revealing a buff surface, giving a mottled appearance. The leaves up to 25 cm long, puberulous, crowded near the ends of branches, paripinnately compound with 6 or 7 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet measuring up to 11 x 3.5 cm. The leaflets are hairless with a narrowly attenuate apex or drip-tip, and entire margin. Petioles are some 20mm in length and slender, causing the leaflets to droop. Flowers are green in colour and in branched sprays some 20 cm long arising from the axils of leaves. Engler & Prantl favoured placing E. caudatum in Wulfhorstia because it has only 6 ovules in each loculus, and because it lacks partitions inside the staminal tube, the feature which struck Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle when he named it Entandrophragma in 1894. The partitions, though, are variable in species and are very short in Entandrophragma speciosa Harms, so that the differences between the two genera become trivial and untenable. [3]
The fruit of this species is remarkable and when green has the form of a cigar- or club-shaped capsule some 40mm in diameter at the thick end and some 150mm in length. When mature the five woody, closely lenticellate, pale brown valves curve back from the thickened tip, leaving a central column intact with impressions of the seeds - in overall appearance that of a half-peeled banana. Seeds are large and winged, 9–10 × 2·5 cm, spinning as they fall, and carried some distance from the tree by wind. [4] Seedlings have large, simple, corrugated leaves with prominent veins, and differ greatly from mature leaves. [5] [6]
Other members of the genus Entandrophragma are exploited commercially for timber, but this species is too sparsely distributed to be economically viable, even though its wood is dark brown with an attractive figure. The wood is moderately dense at 700–815 kg/cubic meter. [1] E. caudatum is often associated with Baikiaea plurijuga on Kalahari Sands, and logs were traditionally used to carve canoes for the Paramount Chief of Barotseland, while the bark was sometimes used for dyeing and tanning. [7] The seed, bark and wood have been shown to contain a mixture of limonoids. Entandrophragma angolense (Welw.) is a forest tree up to 50m in height with a clean bole up to 25m though sometimes with prominent buttresses extending 6-7m up the bole. [8]
Kew Bull. 1910: 180 (1910); in Hook., Ic. Pl. 31: t. 3023 (1915). — Bremek. & Oberm. in Ann. Transv. Mus. 16: 420 (1935). — Harms in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berl. 14: 443–4 (1939). — O. B. Mill, in Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 18: 39 (1952). — Pardy in Rhod. Agr. Journ. 52: 515 cum photogr. (1955). — Williamson, Useful Pl. Nyasal.: 55 (1956). — Palgrave, Trees of Central Afr.: 218 cum photogr. et tab. (1957). — White, F.F.N.R.: 180, fig. 35C–E (1962). TAB. 55 fig. B. Type from the Transvaal.
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Entandrophragma is a genus of eleven known species of deciduous trees in the family Meliaceae.
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Pterocarpus angolensis is a species of Pterocarpus native to southern Africa, in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. It is a protected tree in South Africa. The name Kiaat, although Afrikaans, is sometimes used outside South Africa as well. In Zimbabwe, depending on what region you are in, it is known as Mukwa( which it is also called in Zambia) or Mubvamaropa.
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Commiphora africana, commonly called African myrrh, is a small deciduous tree belonging to the Burseraceae, a family akin to the Anacardiaceae, occurring widely over sub-Saharan Africa in Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Chad, Eswatini, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. On sandy soils this species sometimes forms pure stands, deserving consideration as a plant community or association.
Cordyla africana is a tall, deciduous African tree with a large, spreading, much-branched crown, and a bole of some 2.2 m dbh. It is a member of the large leguminous family Fabaceae, and is known as wild mango in some areas. It is found up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) elevation in large river valleys, in miombo woodland and coastal swampy evergreen forest, mostly on sandy soils, along the eastern parts of central and southern Africa. It occurs in South Africa in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga provinces, the Kruger National Park, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania. 'Cordyla' is from the Greek word 'kordyle', meaning a 'club' and is a reference to the club-shaped fruit and stalk.
Zanha africana, commonly known as the velvet-fruited zanha in English and as mkalya or mkwanga in Swahili, is a species of plant in the family Sapindaceae that is native to Africa. It is used locally for timber and herbal medicine.
Toona sureni is a species of tree in the mahogany family. It is native to South Asia, Indochina, Malesia, China, and Papua New Guinea. It is commonly known as the suren toon, surian, limpaga, iron redwood or the red cedar. It is also known as the Indonesian mahogany or the Vietnamese mahogany. The species is a valuable timber tree.
Maerua angolensis is a 10m tall, occasionally deciduous tree of the Capparaceae or caper family, often growing on termitaria and in thickets fringing seasonal watercourses, up to 1800m. Though never common, it is widespread in tropical Africa and arid regions, being absent from high-rainfall regions.
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Neocussonia umbellifera is an evergreen to semi-deciduous Southern African tree of 15-20m growing in escarpment and coastal forest in Malawi, through eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique along the east coast to South Africa, as far south as the Garden Route. It belongs to the Araliaceae or Cabbage Tree family, and was formerly placed in the genus Schefflera, created by J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. in 1776 to honour the 18th century German physician and botanist Johann Peter Ernst von Scheffler of Danzig, and not to be confused with writer and physician Jacob Christoph Scheffler (1698-1745) of Altdorf bei Nürnberg.
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