Gardenia erubescens
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Gardenia erubescens fruits |
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Gardenia erubescens is a species of the red family(Rubiaceae). It thrives in the Sudanese and Guinean savannas .
description
At Gardenia erubescens is a shrub or small tree that reaches usually stature heights of 1 to 6 feet. The orange-brown to greyish bark is flaky and relatively smooth.
The opposite or in threefold whorls on the branches, sitting or short-stalked leaves are up to 10-20 centimeters long. The simple, mostly bald blade is elliptical to obovate and wedge-shaped at the base, blunt or rounded to rounded at the tip of the leaf. The leaves are sometimes slightly hairy on the underside of the central vein. They are often slightly to fairly irregular in shape, with uneven lobes or teeth. The leaves have a whole margin and sometimes a short petiole, the blade is sometimes a little sloping. The stipules are sloping.
The mostly six to eight-fold, sedentary and fragrant, hermaphrodite flowers appear individually at the end of the branches. The fine-haired sepals are fused into an elongated, somewhat ribbed tube with narrow, short tips. The petals are fused in the shape of a saucer, with a long, greenish tube and the lobes that are laid back reach a diameter of about 4 to 5 cm. The long, elliptical lobes are initially white to creamy white and later brownish or yellow to orange. The almost seated stamens with elongated anthers are located at the top of the corolla tube on the throat. The ovary is subordinate, with a long stylus with a multi-lobed, upright and conical stigma , the stigma lobes are twisted spirally into each other. There is a discus .
The pear-like fruits ( false fruit ), which are yellow when ripe, are ovoid to ellipsoidal, with a relatively firm pulp. They are weak to slightly ribbed, relatively smooth and sometimes a bit hot and usually still have the calyx tips at the tip. The many-seeded fruits are about 5–8 inches long.
distribution
Gardenia erubescens occurs from tropical West Africa to Uganda.
use
The fruits are cooked or eaten raw. The leaves serve as a spice. There are numerous folk medical and magical-religious uses.
literature
- M. Arbonnier: Arbres, arbustes et lianes des zones sèches d'Afrique de l'Ouest. CIRAD, Montpellier 2000, ISBN 2-87614-431-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Gardenia erubescens. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved June 2, 2020.
Web links
- Gardenia erubescens . In: U. Brunken, M. Schmidt, S. Dressler, T. Janssen, A. Thiombiano, G. Zizka: West African plants - A Photo Guide. Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main 2008.