Apocynaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Members of the family are native to the European, Asian, African, Australian, and American tropics or subtropics, with some temperate members. The former family Asclepiadaceae is considered a subfamily of Apocynaceae and contains 348 genera. A list of Apocynaceae genera may be found here.
Pachypodium is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Madagascar and Africa. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae.
Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch was an Austrian explorer and botanist who in Angola was the first European to describe the plant Welwitschia mirabilis. His report received wide attention among the botanists and general public, comparable only to the discovery of two other plants in the 19th century, namely Victoria amazonica and Rafflesia arnoldii.
Colophospermum mopane, commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, 200 to 1,150 metres in elevation, in the far northern parts of Southern Africa. The tree only occurs in Africa and is the only species in genus Colophospermum. Its distinctive butterfly-shaped (bifoliate) leaf and thin seed pod make it easy to identify. In terms of human use it is, together with camel thorn and leadwood, one of the three regionally important firewood trees.
Plants belonging to the genus Pachypodium vary widely from each other in some aspects, but also share a number of basic common traits. Each species is adapted to the specific environment which it inhabits, but all species of the genus share certain anatomical and metabolic traits, reflecting their common evolutionary ancestry.
Pachypodiumhabitats consist of isolated, specialized, micro–environmental niches, generally xeric, rocky, frost-free areas within parts of western Madagascar and southern Africa. Pachypodium species are often indifferent to the regional ecological, biotic zone of vegetation, a fact which explains some of Pachypodium morphology and architecture. The large scale vegetation zones are in some cases irrelevant to the micro-environments of Pachypodium, in the sense that the xeric niches may be embedded in larger mesic biomes.
Bottle tree or bottle-tree may refer to:
Searsia pendulina, commonly known as the white karee (English) or witkaree (Afrikaans), is a hardy, very fast growing, semi-deciduous tree. It is native to Namibia and to the Free State and Cape Provinces of South Africa. It occurs naturally along the Orange River and some of its tributaries.
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.
Protea gaguedi is a species of tree which belongs to the genus Protea.
Protea welwitschii is a species of shrub or small tree which belongs to the genus Protea, and which occurs in bushveld and different types of grassland.
Pachypodium namaquanum, also known as halfmens or elephants trunk, is a succulent plant of Southern Africa. The genus name Pachypodium is from the Greek for 'thick foot', an allusion to its swollen base, while the species name namaquanum is a reference to Namaqualand.
Euphorbia candelabrum is a succulent species of plant in the family Euphorbiaceae, one of several plants commonly known as candelabra tree. It is endemic to the Horn of Africa and eastern Africa along the East African Rift system. It is known in Ethiopia by its Amharic name, qwolqwal, or its Oromo name, adaamii. It is closely related to three other species of Euphorbia: Euphorbia ingens in the dry regions of southern Africa, Euphorbia conspicua from western Angola, and Euphorbia abyssinica, which is native to countries including Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Celtis africana, the white stinkwood, is a deciduous tree in the family Cannabaceae. Its habit ranges from a tall tree in forest to a medium-sized tree in bushveld and open country, and a shrub on rocky soil. It occurs in Yemen and over large parts of Africa south of the Sahara. It is a common tree in the south and east of southern Africa, where the odour given off by freshly-cut green timber is similar to that of Ocotea bullata or black stinkwood.
Kiggelaria africana is a large, robust, low-branching African tree, and is currently the only accepted species in the genus Kiggelaria.
Aloe pearsonii is a very distinctive and unusual species of aloe, that is naturally endemic to the arid Richtersveld area on the border between South Africa and Namibia.
Ozoroa paniculosa, commonly known as the bushveld ozoroa or common resin tree, is a small tree belonging to the mango family or Anacardiaceae. It is native to southern Africa, where it occurs in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia. It grows to a height of about 6 metres at high elevations, but may reach 15 metres in warmer, low-lying areas. This genus currently has some 28 species and occurs from southern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
Euclea crispa, commonly known as the blue guarri, is an Afrotropical plant species of the family Ebenaceae. The hardy and evergreen plants may form a dense stand of shrubs, or grow to tree size. It is widespread and common in the interior regions of southern Africa, and occurs northward to the tropics. Though some are present near the South African south and east coasts, they generally occur at middle to high altitudes. It is readily recognizable from its much-branched structure and dull bluish foliage colour. Those bearing lanceolate leaves may however resemble the Wild olive, another common species of the interior plateaus.
Petalidium, commonly known as petal-bushes, is a genus of perennial shrubs in the acanthus family. They are native to sandy flats or stony slopes in the drier bush regions of Africa, India and the Mascarene Islands. The majority of species occur in frost-free, summer rainfall regions of southern Africa, and may be found from low to medium altitudes.
Entada rangei, commonly known as the skew-leaved elephant-root, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is a deciduous, multi-stemmed shrub or rarely a tree of 4 to 8 meters tall, which may be found on hills as well as plains. The type material was obtained south of Humbe, Angola. E. rangei of southern Namibia is now considered a synonym.
