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A rapidly growing tree up to 18 m high.Stem with straight spines up to 6 cm long.Bark grey-green, smooth, flaking in minute papery scales.Young growth fulvous- to ferruginous-pubescent at first, later glabrescent.Stipules 2–3 × 1–2 cm, ovate, foliaceous, subacute or obtuse, deciduous.Petioles up to 22 cm long, bipulvinate.Leaf blades up to 40 × 30 cm, usually 3-lobed, rarely 5-lobed, sometimes not lobed, deeply cordate and auriculate at the base, repand-dentate on the margins, thinly coriaceous, sparingly puberulous to subglabrous on both surfaces, evenly gland-dotted beneath; lobes forwardly directed, triangular, often emarginate with the mid vein shortly produced; 7–9-nerved from the base, lateral nerves in 5–8 pairs in the median lobe, craspedodromous, tertiary nerves subparallel.Male inflorescences 8–23 cm long, paniculate; bracts 2–4 × 3–4 mm, broadly ovate-suborbicular, subacute or acute, subentire, erose, densely puberulous, many-flowered.Male flowers subsessile, strongly sweetly scented; calyx lobes 3–4, 1 mm long, elliptic-ovate, greenish-yellow; stamens (2)4(5), filaments 1 mm long, ± free, anthers 0.5 mm across.Female inflorescences 10 cm long, paniculate, little branched; bracts 1-flowered.Female flowers shortly pedicellate to subsessile; calyx c. 2.5 mm across, subtruncate to shallowly 4-lobed; ovary 2 × 2.5 mm, 2–3-lobed, tomentellous; styles 2–3, 4 mm long, slightly connate at the base, cylindric, spreading, papillose.Fruit 8–9 × 9–10(17) mm, 2-lobed or 1-chambered, shallowly verruculose-rugulose, puberulous, later glabrescent.Seeds 7–8 × 4.5 mm, ellipsoid, smooth, endotesta dark grey-brown, exotesta chestnut-brown. (Source: JSTOR) |
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Worldwide distribution: | Nigeria eastwards to the Sudan and south to Angola and Zambia. |
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Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
Literature: |
Fischer, E. & Killmann, D. (2008). Illustrated Field guide to the Plants of Nyungwe National Park Rwanda. University of Koblenz-Landau. Page 258. (Includes a picture). Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1996). Euphorbiaceae Flora Zambesiaca 9(4) Pages 161 - 162. |