Africa Wild Tree & Shrub Book - Order Zygophyllales

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Toko
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Africa Wild Tree & Shrub Book - Order Zygophyllales

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Index to Trees & Shrubs in the Order Zygophyllales

Family: Zygophyllaceae
251. Balanites maughamii Green-thorn, Y-thorned Torchwood https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... 06#p242806


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Toko
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Africa Wild Tree & Shrub Book - Order Zygophyllales

Post by Toko »

251. Green-thorn, Y-thorned Torchwood Balanites maughamii (Groendoring)
Order: Zygophyllales. Family: Zygophyllaceae

Image © Toko
Tembe Elephant Park, KwaZulu-Natal

Taxonomic Note
Balanites is also sometimes placed in Balanitaceae (Torchwood family)
Balanitaceae are trees or shrubs, with simple or forked spines. Stipules 0. Leaves alternate, 2-foliolate. Leaflets coriaceous, entire. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Sepals 5, free. Petals 5, free. Stamens 10. Disk succulent, longitudinally 10-grooved. Ovary superior, 5-locular. Fruit a 1-seeded drupe.

Description
Deciduous or semi-deciduous tree up to 25 m tall. Branches distinctly zig-zagging, armed with green forked spines. Trunk straight, frequently fluted; bark smooth, yellowish brown, mottled or grey, becoming roughly fissured; crown rounded, spreading, sometimes with low branches remaining close to the trunk for some distance; branchlets usually yellow to greyish green; spines 3–6 cm long, often on the upper bole and branches as well as the younger stems, frequently branched, often appearing forked. Leaves arranged spirally, 2-foliolate; stipules triangular, up to 3 mm long, sometimes corky, with brown hairs, persistent; petiole and petiolules usually densely pubescent; leaflets usually asymmetrical, elliptical to broadly ovate, rounded to obtuse, acute or shortly acuminate, leathery, glabrous or variously pubescent on both surfaces, eventually glabrescent. Inflorescence an axillary fascicle-like cyme, 3–7-flowered, indumentum yellowish green to buff, sessile or with short peduncle. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, often scented; pedicel 0.5–1 cm long; sepals ovate to obovate, c. 5 mm long, reflexed after anthesis, pubescent outside but with glabrous margins; petals oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 7–8 mm long, reflexed after anthesis, green or greenish yellow, hairy inside; stamens 10, free; disk annular, succulent; ovary superior, densely and stiffly hairy, 5-celled, style terete or tapering. Fruit a 1-seeded drupe, oblong-ellipsoid, depressed at both ends, or ovoid, obtuse apically, 4–6 cm long, ripening reddish brown, the skin firm but thin, eventually brittle, containing spongy and fibrous, dark and oily mesocarp; stone with thick endocarp. Seed ellipsoid to spindle-shaped, up to 2.5 cm long, grooved, cream-coloured.

Distribution
From Tanzania to South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga).

Habitat
A species of dry open woodland, riverine fringes, sand forest and around springs and edges of pans.

Links: PlantZAfrica; Trees and Shrubs of Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park. Ernst Schmidt, Mervyn Lotter, Warren McCleland


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