Syzygium guineense | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Myrtales |
Family: | Myrtaceae |
Genus: | Syzygium |
Species: | S. guineense |
Binomial name | |
Syzygium guineense | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Syzygium guineense (Bambara : Kokisa) is an evergreen leafy forest tree of the family Myrtaceae, found in many parts of Africa both wild and domesticated. Both its fruits and leaves are edible; the pulp and the fruit skin are sucked and the seed discarded. It is sometimes called "waterberry", but this may also refer to other species of Syzygium .
Syzygium guineense can grow as a tree, a shrub, or a pyrophytic subshrub, depending on its habitat. [1] As a tree its height is usually between 10 and 15 meters, but some specimens have been found as tall as 25 meters. The trunk is broad and fluted and the crown rounded and heavy, with a bark that is smooth when young, but becomes rough and black with age. The branches are dropping, the stems are thick and angular. The young leaves are purple-red in color, but as they mature their color becomes dark green; the leaves in general are shiny and smooth on both surfaces, with a tip that is long but rounded, on a short grooved stalk. The flowers of S. guineense have white, showy stamens, in dense branched heads 10 centimeters across, yielding a honey-sweet smell that attracts many insects.
Syzygium guineense ranges widely through sub-Saharan Africa, and is also present in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. [2]
It grows in a range of habitats, including lowland and montane forests, forest edges, woodlands, humid savannas, swamps, and mangrove edges, from sea level up to 2,500 meters elevation. [1] It prefers moist soils with a high water table beside rivers, but will also grow in open woodland. [3]
In southern Ethiopia S. guineense is a much-appreciated shade tree for both the homestead and the home garden. [3] It is considered a famine food, eaten by subsistence farmers when their crops fail. [4]
Syzygium guineense is a highly variable species, leading to debate concerning its taxonomy, including its subspecies. Frank White lists four subspecies: afromontanum, barotsense, guineense, and huillense, the last of which is a suffrutex. [5] However, many other subspecies and varieties have been proposed. [6] White identified three other subspecies – bamendae, obovatum, and occidentale – which Plants of the World Online considers a separate species, Syzygium staudtii . [7]
The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below 1,500 m (4,900 ft), while the summits reach heights of up to 4,550 m (14,930 ft). It is sometimes called the "Roof of Africa" due to its height and large area. It is the only country in the region with such a high elevated surface. This elevated surface is bisected diagonally by the Great East African Rift System which extends from Syria to Mozambique across the East African Lakes. Most of the Ethiopian Highlands are part of central and northern Ethiopia, and its northernmost portion reaches into Eritrea.
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Trema orientale is a species of flowering tree in the hemp family, Cannabaceae. It is known by many common names, including charcoal-tree, Indian charcoal-tree, pigeon wood, Oriental trema, and in Hawaii, where it has become naturalized, gunpowder tree, or nalita. It has a near universal distribution in tropical and warm temperate parts of the Old World, with a range extending from South Africa, through the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and southern China to Southeast Asia and Australia.
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The Sheka Forest is a UNESCO designated Biosphere Reserve in south western Ethiopia. The area includes forest, bamboo thickets, wetlands, agricultural land, rural settlements and towns. It covers a unique biogeographic unit extending from cold and very wet highlands to hot lowland areas. The diverse resident human population is committed to sustainable use of the forests through both the production of wooden items and non-timber forest products. It was declared in 2012 and is administered by SNNP Region Bureau of Agriculture, Sheka Zone Administration, Sheka Zone Department of Agriculture, Masha Woreda Office of Agriculture, Anderacha Woreda Office of Agriculture, Yeski Woreda Office of Agriculture. The reserve covers a core area of 238,750 hectares, with a buffer zone 76,395 hectares and transition areas of 107,100 hectares.
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