Osyris compressa | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Santalales |
Family: | Santalaceae |
Genus: | Osyris |
Species: | O. compressa |
Binomial name | |
Osyris compressa (P.J.Bergius) A.DC | |
Osyris compressa (Cape sumach or pruimbos) is a facultatively hemiparasitic, [1] mainly South African plant of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae. Until recently, the favoured binomial name was Colpoon compressum, but around 2001, the genus Colpoon was included in Osyris on the basis of comparative DNA studies. [2] That assignment is not final, however, and according to the Kew Gardens plant list, Colpoon compressum P.J.Bergius, though still in review, is the accepted name. [3]
Cape sumach is a shrub or small tree of up to 5 m tall, though a more typical size for a plant growing in the open would be 2 to 3 m. The leaves are opposite, decussate, blue-green with a greyish bloom, elliptical, smooth, stiff, typically about 20–50 mm long, with thickened, entire margins. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle, bearing small, slightly fragrant, bisexual flowers. The flowers are creamy-green and unspectacular, but they appear through much of the year, attracting pollinating insects of various types. The ovary has four ovules, but the fruit is a single-seeded drupe, a prolate spheroid in shape. It is about 15 to 25 mm long and perhaps 10 to 15 mm across. The drupe is fleshy with a smooth skin crowned with the perianth lobes in a ring around its tip. Usually by the time the fruit is ripe, a circular groove is all that remains of the perianth. The fruit are colourful, progressing first from greenish blue to bright red, and then to glossy purple or black as they ripen; they mature at different rates, so the successive colours can be quite showy in combination. [4] [5]
The species is mainly South African, occurring from the coastal fynbos in the region of the Cape Peninsula in the west, along the south coast and north into tropical East Africa. [5]
O. compressa is a tough and adaptable plant. It can withstand frost, heat and winds. It grows fast and survives in poor, sandy soils, even in coastal dunes, where it may play a significant role as a windbreak and in binding sand. Being monoecious, and with bisexual flowers, and both cross-pollinating and self-fertile, the species produces fertile seeds prolifically. It begins to bear fruit when quite young, and it seeds plentifully practically throughout the year. The fruit attracts a range of birds and mammals that spread the seed effectively.
Like many members of the family Santalaceae, it exploits a facultative hemiparasitic ecological strategy to supplement its nutrient supplies, especially in dry conditions or poor soils. Its roots form haustoria that tap into the roots of nearby plants and extract their sap. Although these plants can grow without a host, this habit helps them to flourish in relatively poor coastal sands, and they need hosts if they are to grow at their best. [1] In this respect, O. compressa resembles some other hemiparasites in related families such as Nuytsia floribunda in the Loranthaceae.
Being parasitic does not protect O. compressa from other parasites; several species of mistletoe in the genus Viscum (currently recognised as members of the same family as Osyris) often parasitise its branches. Also, given it is a root parasite, it in turn may be host to another root parasite in the same family, Thesidium fragile, and possibly related species. It is not clear which, if either, of these rival root parasites benefits from the other when their roots meet.
Being a densely leaved shrub with plentiful, if inconspicuous, flowers and edible fruit, O. compressa is of importance as a shelter and food plant for many animals. Of these probably the best-known is the butterfly Mylothris agathina , a member of the family Pieridae.
This plant is popular in coastal gardens as an ornamental. It grows in coastal dunes and because of its vigorous and compact growth habit, it can be shaped into a dense hedge. It also produces attractive multicoloured berries throughout the year that are ornamental and attract frugivorous birds. Osyris compressa has been grown in programs to stabilize coastal dunes.
The leaves and bark used to be valued for tanning. The wood is high-quality and fine-grained, but the plant seldom produces trunks or limbs large enough for most uses. Although not much active cultivation of the plant occurs, it seems to be of interest as a source of incense and essential oil in much the same way as sandalwood. [6]
The flesh of the berries is edible and formed part of the diet of the local Khoikhoi, both fresh and preserved as the dried pulp. It shows little promise as a popular fruit for westerners, however, having a "tingly sour taste", according to some reports. [1] Others however describe it as "plum-like", and the Afrikaans name pruimbos means "plum bush". An extract from the boiled bark has been used to flavour tea.
Osyris compressa can be propagated by seed. [7]
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.
The Santalaceae, sandalwoods, are a widely distributed family of flowering plants which, like other members of Santalales, are partially parasitic on other plants. Its flowers are bisexual or, by abortion, unisexual. Modern treatments of the Santalaceae include the family Viscaceae (mistletoes), previously considered distinct.
Rhinanthus minor, known as yellow rattle, is a herbaceous wildflower in the genus Rhinanthus in the family Orobanchaceae. It has circumpolar distribution in Europe, Russia, western Asia, and northern North America. An annual plant, yellow rattle grows up to 10–50 centimetres (3.9–19.7 in) tall, with upright stems and opposite, simple leaves. The fruit is a dry capsule, with loose, rattling seeds.
Santalum is a genus of woody flowering plants in the Santalaceae family, the best known and commercially valuable of which is the Indian sandalwood tree, S. album. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasites which photosynthesize their own food, but tap the roots of other species for water and inorganic nutrients. Several species, most notably S. album, produce highly aromatic wood, used for scents and perfumes and for herbal medicine. About 25 known species range across the Indomalayan, Australasian, and Oceanian realms, from India through Malesia to the Pacific Islands, as far as Hawaiʻi and the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of South America.
Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera were formerly included in the family Scrophulariaceae sensu lato. With its new circumscription, Orobanchaceae forms a distinct, monophyletic family. From a phylogenetic perspective, it is defined as the largest crown clade containing Orobanche major and relatives, but neither Paulownia tomentosa nor Phryma leptostachya nor Mazus japonicus.
Santalum acuminatum, the desert quandong, is a hemiparasitic plant in the sandalwood family, Santalaceae, which is widely dispersed throughout the central deserts and southern areas of Australia. The species, especially its edible fruit, is also commonly referred to as quandong or native peach. The use of the fruit as an exotic flavouring, one of the best known bush tucker, has led to the attempted domestication of the species.
Cassytha is a genus of some two dozen species of obligately parasitic vines in the family Lauraceae. Superficially, and in some aspects of their ecology, they closely resemble plants in the unrelated genus Cuscuta, the dodders. When fruit and flowers are absent in the field, the physical resemblance is so close that few people without technical training can discern the difference. In this respect and in their ecology the two genera present a spectacular example of convergent evolution. Nonetheless, Nickrent comments that "Cassytha is uneqivocally assigned to Lauraceae based on (both) morphological and molecular data." In its divergence from habits typical of the Lauraceae, Cassytha also presents examples of mosaic evolution
Viscum is a genus of about 70–100 species of mistletoes, native to temperate and tropical regions of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Traditionally, the genus has been placed in its own family Viscaceae, but recent genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group shows this family to be correctly placed within a larger circumscription of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae. Its name is the origin of the English word viscous, after the Latin viscum, a sticky bird lime made from the plants' berries.
Osyris is a genus of plants in the family Santalaceae, one of the many genera known as sandalwoods, but not one of the true sandalwood. The species of this genus are mostly hemiparasitic, meaning although they can survive and grow by themselves, they also opportunistically tap into the root systems of nearby plants and parasitize them.
The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentrations of diversity. Together with the Platanaceae, Nelumbonaceae and in the recent APG IV system the Sabiaceae, they make up the order Proteales. Well-known 'Proteaceae genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea, Hakea and Macadamia. Species such as the New South Wales waratah, king protea, and various species of Banksia, Grevillea, and Leucadendron are popular cut flowers. The nuts of Macadamia integrifolia are widely grown commercially and consumed, as are those of Gevuina avellana on a smaller scale.
A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the haustorium, which penetrates the host plant, connecting them to the host vasculature – either the xylem, phloem, or both. For example, plants like Striga or Rhinanthus connect only to the xylem, via xylem bridges (xylem-feeding). Alternately, plants like Cuscuta and some members of Orobanche connect to both the xylem and phloem of the host. This provides them with the ability to extract resources from the host. These resources can include water, nitrogen, carbon and/or sugars. Parasitic plants are classified depending on the location where the parasitic plant latches onto the host, the amount of nutrients it requires, and their photosynthetic capability. Some parasitic plants can locate their host plants by detecting volatile chemicals in the air or soil given off by host shoots or roots, respectively. About 4,500 species of parasitic plants in approximately 20 families of flowering plants are known.
Osyris lanceolata, also known as African sandalwood, watta bush or Camwood, is used for its scented wood and to extract essential oil. The semi-parasitic plant is found from South Africa to Zimbabwe and east Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda; northwest Africa; the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia. It grows in rocky areas or along the margins of dry forest, but is usually not abundant in any one place.
A facultative parasite is an organism that may resort to parasitic activity, but does not absolutely rely on any host for completion of its life cycle.
Mylothris agathina, the eastern dotted border or common dotted border, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, particularly East Africa and southern Africa. In South Africa its range has spread westwards around the coast in the late 20th century, and it now occurs north of Cape Town to somewhat beyond Saldanha.
Cape Flats Dune Strandveld is an endangered vegetation type. This is a unique type of Cape Strandveld that is endemic to the coastal areas around Cape Town, including the Cape Flats.
Osyris alba, common name osyris, is a small perennial plant in the genus Osyris belonging to the Santalaceae family.
Willdenowia is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Restionaceae described as a genus in 1790. The entire genus is endemic to the fynbos of the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
Exocarpos latifolius is a species of parasitic tree, in the plant family Santalaceae. They have the common names broad leaved ballart, scrub sandal-wood, scrub cherry, oringorin, broad leaved cherry or native cherry. The species is found in monsoon forest, littoral rainforest and occasionally in more open forest types in Malesia and across Northern Australia.
Osyris daruma is a species of plant in the family Santalaceae.
Leucadendron coniferum, also known at the dune conebush, is an evergreen, dioecious shrub or small tree of up to 4 m (13 ft) high, that has been assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has a whorl of conspicuous yellow leaves subtending the flowerheads. The flowers can be found in August and September. It grows in sandy soils near the coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa.