Sclerocroton integerrimus

Last updated

Duiker berry
Sclerocroton integerrimus Athlone.jpg
Branchlets and foliage
Duiker Berries.JPG
fruit (duiker berries)
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Genus: Sclerocroton
Species:
S. integerrimus
Binomial name
Sclerocroton integerrimus
(Hochst.) J.Léonard
Synonyms [1]
  • Sapium reticulatum(Hochst. ex C.Krauss) Pax
  • Stillingia integerrima(Hochst.) Baill.
  • Excoecaria integerrima(Hochst.) Müll.Arg.
  • Sapium armatumPax & K.Hoffm.
  • Sclerocroton reticulatusHochst.
  • Excoecaria africanaSim
  • Excoecaria hochstetterianaMüll.Arg.
  • Excoecaria reticulata(Hochst.) Müll.Arg.
  • Sapium integerrimum(Hochst.) J.Léonard

Sclerocroton integerrimus, the duiker berry, is a tree in the family Euphorbiaceae, from Southern Africa.

Contents

Leaves and inflorescence Sclerocroton integerrimus inflorescence.JPG
Leaves and inflorescence

Taxonomy

This species was originally named as two species; Sclerocroton integerrimusHochst. (1845) and S. reticulatusHochst. (1845). When Sclerocroton integerrimus was united for the first time, Baillon (in Adansonia 3: 162. 1863) adopted the name Stillingia integerrima(Hochst.) Baill. for the combined taxon. [2]

This tree has also been named Sapium integerrimum; with most literature referring to it by this name (2010).

Distribution

Found from the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to Mozambique and Botswana. [3]

Description

A small to medium-sized tree growing up to 15m tall. [3]

Stem and branches

Single or multi-stemmed, with smooth pale grey bark, and arching, weeping branches. [3] The branchlets are reddish-brown, later becoming grey-brown in colour. [1]

Leaves

The leaves are alternate, shiny and dark-green above, and paler beneath. [3] The leaves are ovate-lanceolate to ovate-oblong in shape, with entire or shallowly serrated leaf margins. The leaf petioles are 3–5 mm long, and the leaf blades 20–100 mm long and 10–50 mm wide. [1]

Flowers

Small yellowish flowers are produced on terminal spikes. [3] The flowers are either all male or with 1 female flower at the base of the spike. [1]

Fruit

The fruit is a 3-lobed capsule up to 25 mm in diameter. [3] The fruit opens by splitting into three roughly circular parts, with each of the 6 valves bearing a shortly-conical appendage (horn [3] ) 2 mm long. [1] When ripe; the fruit are green or coppery in colour, and leathery in texture. [3] Each of the cocci bears one seed enclosed in a 2 mm thick woody endocarp. The seeds are 7 × 5 mm in size, ovoid-ellipsoid in shape, smooth surfaced, and dull, pale greyish-brown flecked and spotted with darker brown. [1]

Wood

The wood is heavy, hard and durable. [4]

Uses

The leaves are used in traditional medicine as a mouth wash and to treat toothache. The fruit have been used to make black ink and for tanning, and the wood has been used to make furniture and for hut building. [3] [4] The fruit are eaten by livestock. [3]

Ecological significance

This is one of the larval food plants for two species of butterfly; Sevenia boisduvali and Sevenia natalensis . [5] The leaves are also eaten by bushbuck [3] and red duiker. [6] The fruit are eaten by antelope, and birds [3] such as crowned hornbills. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Sapium</i> genus of plants

Sapium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is widespread across most of Latin America and the West Indies. Many Old World species were formerly included in the genus, but recent authors have redistributed all the Old World species into other genera.

<i>Carissa</i> Genus of plants

Carissa is a genus of shrubs or small trees native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and Asia. Until recently about 100 species were listed, but most of them have been relegated to the status of synonyms or assigned to other genera, such as Acokanthera.

Shirakiopsis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1999. There are six known species, 3 native to tropical Asia and 3 to tropical Africa.

<i>Sclerocroton</i> genus of plants

Sclerocroton is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1845. There a total of 6 known species in this genus; 5 species in continental Africa and a single species in Madagascar.

  1. Sclerocroton carterianus(J.Léonard) Kruijt & Roebers - Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone
  2. Sclerocroton cornutus(Pax) Kruijt & Roebers - C + SC Africa from Cameroon to Zimbabwe plus Ivory Coast
  3. Sclerocroton integerrimusHochst. - C + S Africa from Zaire to KawZulu-Natal, plus Guinea
  4. Sclerocroton melanostictus(Baill.) Kruijt & Roebers - Madagascar
  5. Sclerocroton oblongifolius(Müll.Arg.) Kruijt & Roebers - Zaire, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  6. Sclerocroton schmitzii(J.Léonard) Kruijt & Roebers - Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Androstachys johnsonii, the Lebombo ironwood, is a medium-sized Afrotropical tree species, and the sole member of the genus Androstachys in the Picrodendraceae. It is slow-growing, evergreen to deciduous, and dioecious, with flowers that are wind-pollinated. It is native to southeastern Africa and Madagascar, where it generally occurs gregariously on rocky hillsides, particularly in hot and dry situations. It produces a hard, durable wood which is of economic interest. Its specific name commemorates W. H. Johnson, a 19th-century Director of Agriculture in Mozambique. Four related species which are native to Madagascar, are usually placed in genus Stachyandra.

<i>Ceanothus integerrimus</i> species of plant

Ceanothus integerrimus is a woody shrub in the family Rhamnaceae, native to the western United States, in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington. It grows in montane chaparral and woodlands regions, in hardwood forests, and in fir, spruce, and Ponderosa pine plant communities, being most abundant in the California chaparral and woodlands and Sierra Nevada.

<i>Endiandra discolor</i> species of plant

Endiandra discolor is an Australian tree, growing from near Gosford, New South Wales to Tully, Queensland in the tropics. Common names include rose walnut and domatia tree.

<i>Celtis africana</i> species of plant

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.

<i>Drypetes deplanchei</i> species of plant

Drypetes deplanchei is a tree of eastern and northern Australia. It also occurs in New Caledonia and Lord Howe Island. The genus is derived from the Greek, dryppa meaning "olive fruit". The species named after Dr. Emile Deplanche, who collected this plant at New Caledonia. Common names include yellow tulip, grey boxwood, white myrtle, grey bark and yellow tulipwood.

<i>Alchornea ilicifolia</i> species of plant

Alchornea ilicifolia, commonly known as the native holly is a bush of eastern Australia. Growing in or on the edges of the drier rainforests, from Jamberoo, New South Wales to Atherton, Queensland.

<i>Mimusops caffra</i> species of plant

Mimusops caffra is a species of tree in family Sapotaceae. This tree is found in coastal dune vegetation in Southern Africa from the Eastern Cape, through KwaZulu-Natal to southern Mozambique.

<i>Deinbollia oblongifolia</i> species of plant

Deinbollia oblongifolia is a shrub or small tree in the family Sapindaceae. It is commonly known as the dune soap-berry and is found in coastal vegetation from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, through KwaZulu-Natal to southern Mozambique and Swaziland. It is named after Peter Vogelius Deinboll (1783-1876), a Danish botanist and plant collector.

<i>Margaritaria discoidea</i> species of plant

Margaritaria discoidea is a tree in the family Phyllanthaceae, commonly known as the pheasant-berry, egossa red pear or bushveld peacock-berry. These trees are native to the warmer, higher rainfall areas of Africa.

<i>Sevenia boisduvali</i> species of insect

Sevenia boisduvali, the Boisduval's tree nymph, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. There are four subspecies; all native to Africa.

<i>Alangium villosum <span style="font-style:normal;">subsp.</span> polyosmoides</i> subspecies of plant

Alangium villosum subsp. polyosmoides is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. It occurs on a variety of different soils and rainforests, relatively close to the coast. Found from Minmi near Newcastle to as far north as the McIlwraith Range in far north eastern Australia. It may be seen as a common understorey plant at Wingham Brush Nature Reserve.

<i>Pappea</i> genus of plants

Pappea capensis is a South African tree in the family Sapindaceae. It is the only species in the genus Pappea.

<i>Euclea crispa</i> species of African tree

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.

<i>Urera trinervis</i> Climbing nettle native to Africa

Urera trinervis (Hochst.) Friis & Immelman is a softly woody dioecious liane, sometimes epiphytic, climbing to 20 m, often to the canopy and hanging in festoons. It is one of some 44 species of Urera belonging to the nettle family Urticaceae. It is known in English as the tree climbing-nettle or climbing nettle.

<i>Excoecaria simii</i> species of plant

Excoecaria simii, the forest pepper-seed or forest pepper-seed bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is endemic to South Africa, in forests of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.

<i>Allophylus natalensis</i> species of plant

Allophylus natalensis, commonly known as the dune false crowberry or dune false currant, is a species of plant in the genus Allophylus endemic to south-eastern Africa.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 JSTOR Plant Science: Sapium integerrimus Hochst. [family EUPHORBIACEAE]: http://plants.jstor.org/taxon/Sapium.integerrimus
  2. International Association for Plant Taxonomy: INTERNATIONAL CODE OF BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE online: http://ibot.sav.sk/icbn/frameset/0015Ch2Sec3a011.htm, retrieved 1 July 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pooley, E. (1993). The Complete Field Guide to Trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei. ISBN   0-620-17697-0.
  4. 1 2 Schmelzer, H. G. and Gurib-Fakim, A. (2008). Medicinal Plants. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (Program). ISBN   90-5782-204-0
  5. Williams, M. (1994). Butterflies of Southern Africa; A Field Guide. ISBN   1-86812-516-5
  6. Skinner, J.D. (1990). The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion (New Edition). ISBN   0-86979-802-2.
  7. Bleher, B. Seed Dispersal and Frugivory: Ecological Consequences for Tree Populations and Bird Communities: http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=962677744&dok_var=d1&dok_ext=pdf&filename=962677744.pdf, retrieved 1 July 2010.