Commiphora tenuipetiolata
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record (Click here to see images of this plant from Kyffhäuser)
Image 1
Habit
04 Apr 2015
Image 2
Leaves (note long petioles)
04 Apr 2015
Image 3
Bark
04 Apr 2015
| Family: | Burseraceae |
| Full name: | Commiphora tenuipetiolata Engl. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Witstamkanniedood, Bloustam, Poeierstam-kanniedood |
| English common name(s): | White-stem corkwood, Satin-bark commiphora, Satin-bark corkwood |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Shrub or small tree. Bark bluish-green flaking in large yellowish-grey strips; branches without spines. Leaves clustered on small lateral shoots, 3-foliolate or rarely imparipinnate with 5-9 leaflets; leaflets obovate, blue-green, especially below, normally hairless, sometimes slightly hairy when imparipinnate; margin entire or finely toothed near the apex; petiole slender, often pinkish, up to 5 cm long. Flowers in small axillary clusters, greenish-yellow, appearing with the leaves. Fruit on a long peduncle, spherical, c. 1.2 cm, red when ripe, splitting to reveal a black seed cupped in a 4-lobed bright red pseudo-aril. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Dioecious tree with a single trunk 2-12 m tall, occasionally shrub-like tree with a short trunk; bark peeling in yellowish white papery pieces to expose a blue-green underlayer or peeling in thick brownish discs; young branch-lets glabrous, sparsely pilose but rarely pubescent, not spine-tipped. Leaves trifoliolate (then mostly glabrous) or pinnate, 2-4-jugate (then usually sparsely pilose to pubescent, occasionally also with glandular hairs), glaucous, yellowish green or green; petiole 7-50 mm long, usually relatively thin and slender especially in trifoliolate leaves; upper three-quarters of leaflet margin crenate-serrate, lower quarter suben-tire or entire, occasionally exclusively entire, terminal leaflet elliptic, broadly elliptic or obo-vate, 12-65 x 7-30 mm; petiolule 1-4(-12) mm long; apex acute or obtuse, base cuneate rarely obtuse, lateral leaflets elliptic to broadly elliptic rarely suborbicular, 6-45 x 4-25 mm, subsessile or sessile, apex acute rarely obtuse, base cuneate or obtuse. Inflorescence: simple or compound dichasial cymes up to 55 mm long, glabrous, sparsely pilose or pubescent. Flowers unisexual, perigynous. Pedicel 4-10 mm long, pedicel, hypanthium and calyx usually glabrous, seldom pilose, occasionally also with glandular hairs. Disc reduced, without distinct lobes, adnate to hypanthium. Stamens 8. Fruit subglobose, 15 x 13 x 10 mm, glabrous; pseudo-aril cupular with 2 facial lobes of variable length and form covering lower third to three-quarters of putamen; lobe on less convex face of putamen usually longer and larger than other lobe. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Southern Africa) Bush or small tree up to 5 m tall, usually glabrous except for the bracteoles; bark smooth, peeling in whitish strips, under layer dark green. Leaves 3-foliolate or pinnate with the leaflets 2-jugate (rarely 3-jugate); petiole up to 4.5 cm long, sometimes sparsely pilose, slender and often twisted; terminal leaflet up to 5.8 x 3 cm, obovate to broadly obovate, apex rounded, base gradually cuneate, lateral leaflets up to 4 x 2.5 cm, elliptic, broadly elliptic or obovate, apex obtuse, base cuneate; all leaflets with margins entire or with a few crenations near the apex, glabrous, glaucous; petiolules up to 1 mm long. Flowers appearing with the very young leaves, in axillary paniculate cymes up to 4 cm long or the female inflorescences reduced to 1–2-flowered abbreviated cymes; branches of inflorescence very slender; bracteoles c. 3 mm long, filamentous, pubescent; pedicels up to 3 mm long, slender. Calyx c. 3–5 mm, long, infundibuliform, lobed to about 1/3-way. Petals 2–3 mm long. Stamen-filaments flattened and broadened towards the base. Disk-lobes not developed. Fruit c. 1.2 cm in diam., globose, somewhat flattened; pseudaril covering about 2/3 of the endocarp and becoming thin above; endocarp c. 1 x 0.75 cm, subcordiform, smooth, both faces moderately convex. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
