Duiker berry | |
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Branchlets and foliage | |
fruit (duiker berries) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
Genus: | Sclerocroton |
Species: | S. integerrimus |
Binomial name | |
Sclerocroton integerrimus | |
Synonyms [2] [4] | |
|
Sclerocroton integerrimus, the duiker berry, is a tree in the family Euphorbiaceae . [2] [3] It is from Southern Africa.
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. [5]
This tree has also been named Sapium integerrimum; with most literature referring to it by this name (2010).
Found from the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to Mozambique and Botswana. [6]
A small to medium-sized tree growing up to 15m tall. [6]
Single or multi-stemmed, with smooth pale grey bark, and arching, weeping branches. [6] The branchlets are reddish-brown, later becoming grey-brown in colour. [4]
The leaves are alternate, shiny and dark-green above, and paler beneath. [6] 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. [4]
Small yellowish flowers are produced on terminal spikes. [6] The flowers are either all male or with 1 female flower at the base of the spike. [4]
The fruit is a 3-lobed capsule up to 25 mm in diameter. [6] The fruit opens by splitting into three roughly circular parts, with each of the 6 valves bearing a shortly-conical appendage (horn [6] ) 2 mm long. [4] When ripe; the fruit are green or coppery in colour, and leathery in texture. [6] 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. [4]
The wood is heavy, hard and durable. [7]
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. [6] [7] The fruit are eaten by livestock. [6]
This is one of the larval food plants for two species of butterfly; Sevenia boisduvali and Sevenia natalensis . [8] The leaves are also eaten by bushbuck [6] and red duiker. [9] The fruit are eaten by antelope, and birds [6] such as crowned hornbills. [10]
Triadica sebifera is a tree native to eastern Asia. It is commonly called Chinese tallow, Chinese tallowtree, Florida aspen, chicken tree, gray popcorn tree, or candleberry tree.
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.
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.
Pachypodium bicolor is a species of plant in the family Apocynaceae.
Excoecaria is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae, formally described by Linnaeus in 1759. The genus is native to the Old World Tropics.
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.
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.
Ceanothus integerrimus, known by the common name deer brush, is a species of 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.
Xylotheca kraussiana is an African shrub or small multi-stemmed tree in the family Achariaceae. It grows in the sandveld and is widely distributed throughout the eastern parts of Southern Africa, in particular the eastern Transvaal, coastal Natal and Mozambique, preferring the sandy soils of coastal bush and forest.
Annona senegalensis, commonly known as African custard-apple, wild custard apple, wild soursop, abo ibobo, sunkungo, and dorgot is a species of flowering plant in the custard apple family, Annonaceae. The specific epithet, senegalensis, translates to mean "of Senegal", the country where the type specimen was collected.
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 Somaliland 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.
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.
Croton sylvaticus is a tree in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is commonly known as the forest fever-berry. These trees are distributed in forests from the east coast of South Africa to Tropical Africa. It grows 7–13 metres (23–43 ft) in height, occasionally up to 30 metres (100 ft), in moist forests, thickets and forest edges at altitudes of 350–1,800 metres (1,100–5,900 ft).
Mimusops afra 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.
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 Eswatini. It is named after Peter Vogelius Deinboll (1783–1876), a Danish botanist and plant collector.
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.
Sevenia boisduvali, the Boisduval's tree nymph, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. There are four subspecies; all native to Africa.
Alangium polyosmoides is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. It occurs on a variety of different soils, generally close to the coast. Found from Minmi near Newcastle to as far north as the McIlwraith Range in far northeastern Queensland. It may be seen as a common understorey plant at Wingham Brush Nature Reserve.
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.
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.