Marula tree
| Marula tree | ||||||||||||
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Marula tree |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sclerocarya birrea | ||||||||||||
| ( A.Rich. ) Hochst. |
The marula tree ( Sclerocarya birrea ), also known as the elephant tree, is a species of plant within the sumac family (Anacardiaceae). It mainly thrives in the warm, frost-free regions of subequatorial Africa .
description
Vegetative characteristics
Sclerocarya birrea thrives as a tree with a spreading crown and can reach heights of up to 18 meters and trunk diameters of up to 80 centimeters or more. The tree completely sheds its leaves in winter. The bark is brownish to greyish and flakes off with age. The bark of young twigs is hairy.
The alternately arranged, stalked leaves are up to 30 centimeters or more long and pinnate unpaired. They appear tufted at the branch ends. The slender stalked, usually entire to (in young leaves) (sometimes pointed) toothed, serrate, ovate or obovate to rounded, elliptical and pointed, pointed to pointed or tailed pinnate leaves are glabrous and lighter on the underside and have a bluish layer of wax. The leaflets are about 4–8 inches long. Stipules are missing.
Generative characteristics
Sclerocarya birrea is mostly dioecious, separate sexes ( diocesan ). The small flowers are four to five-fold with a double flower envelope. The flowers appear when the tree is still bare, i.e. before the leaves.
Female, almost terminal inflorescences are 3 to 5 centimeters long and contain only one to four almost sessile, white-reddish flowers. The flowers are underlaid by a bract . The petals and sepals are partially set back. The large, ellipsoidal, often reddish-white ovary is on top with two to three short styluses, often lateral, with a heady stigma, there is a disc and a few staminodes.
The short-stalked male, mostly axillary or almost terminal and racemose inflorescences are 8 to 20 centimeters long and they are underlaid by two small bracts. They contain mostly grouped and short-stalked flowers, each with four whitish-reddish, recessed bloom cladding and sepals. They contain up to 12 or more stamens and a fleshy, yellow to reddish discus. The flowers are underlaid by a reddish, small bract. There can also be isolated female flowers in the inflorescences.
The bald, round to ellipsoidal, leathery stone fruit is yellow when ripe and about 3 to 4 centimeters in size. The whitish mesocarp is fleshy, juicy, and fibrous. The round-edged, relatively smooth stone core up to 2–3 centimeters in size contains i. d. Usually two (up to four) chambers in which the elongated seeds are located; When germination begins, the stone core breaks open at the end of each chamber with a germ cover (operculum). The seeds are up to 1.5–2 centimeters long and have no endosperm and have thick, fleshy cotyledons , the brown seed coat is thin and papery.
The number of chromosomes is probably 2n = 26, but is only available for Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra secured.
Systematics
The first publication took place in 1831 under the name (Basionym) Spondias birrea by A.Rich. in Florae Senegambiae tentamen 1: 152, t. 41. The reallocation to Sclerocarya birrea (A.Rich.) Hochst. into a new genus, made in 1844 by Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter in the Flora or Allgemeine Botanische Zeitung 27 (special supplement): 1. Synonyms are Spondias birrea A.Rich. and Poupartia birrea (A.Rich.) Aubrév.
From Sclerocarya birrea there are about two subspecies:
- Sclerocarya birrea subsp. birrea : It occurs in tropical Africa from Gambia to Ethiopia and from Cameroon to Kenya .
- Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra (Sond.) Kokwaro (Syn .: Sclerocarya caffra Sond. , Poupartia caffra (Sond.) H.Perrier ): It occurs in tropical and southern Africa, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar .
- Sclerocarya birrea subsp. multifoliolata (Engl.) Kokwaro : It occurs in Tanzania and Kenya.
use
The female Marula tree brings already at minimal rainfalls a considerable harvest mirabelles large , golden yellow fruits produced, harvested and given the size of the trees as windfalls are collected and Amarula - liqueur and Amarula- oil processed or fruit can be consumed directly as .
There is a thin layer of pulp under a peelable, relatively thick skin that is stuck directly to the large stone. The pulp has a sour, refreshing taste (the "food" is more like sucking, as the thin pulp is very firmly attached to the stone). The fruits perish quickly as they ferment very quickly. They are said to have an aphrodisiac effect.
For the marula fruit festival Oshituthi shomagongo of Ovambo in northern Namibia , a fermented drink is prepared from the juice of the fruit.
The stone of the marula fruit contains an edible seed which is considered a regional delicacy and whose oil can be used for cosmetic purposes. The ground bark of the tree is eaten by pregnant women of the Venda people in South Africa in order to influence the sex of the developing child.
In traditional medicine, the bark, roots and leaves of the marula tree are used - for example, a brew from the bark is used against diarrheal diseases , an alcoholic extract from the bark is used as a prophylaxis against malaria, and an extract from the leaves is used to treat burns and abscesses .
From animal life
The marula tree is also called the "elephant tree" because the fragrant and often fermenting fruits of the tree are eaten by elephants . However, biologists consider it almost impossible that elephants, as shown in the classic film The Funny World of Animals , can get drunk by enjoying the fermenting marula fruits. Since the alcohol content of the fruit is only around three percent, the pachyderms would have to consume vast amounts of the fruit. The researchers therefore believe that the intoxication observed in the animals was caused by poisonous beetle pupae living in the tree bark . In addition to the fruits, the animals would also eat the bark and thus also these special beetle pupae. Locals traditionally use these beetle dolls to make poisonous arrowheads . According to researchers, it is likely that the elephants' staggering is primarily caused by the poison contained in the pupae. On the other hand, the film shows that not only elephants, but also pigs, monkeys and other animals behave drunk without getting near the tree bark because the overripe fruits fall down. The main part of the fermentation of the marula fruit takes place in the stomach of the animals.
literature
- Sclerocarya birrea in PROTA.
- JB Hall, EM O′Brian, FL Sinclair: Sclerocarya birrea a monograph. School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences Publication Number 19, Univ. of Wales, 2002, ISBN 1-84220-049-6 , online (PDF; 2.8 MB) at cropsfordrylands.com, accessed April 16, 2019.
Web links
- Sclerocarya birrea . 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.
- Sclerocarya birrea on treesa.org, with many pictures.
- Sclerocarya birrea at Useful Tropical Plants.
Individual evidence
- ^ M. Arbonnier: Arbres, arbustes et lianes des zones sèches d'Afrique de l'Ouest. CIRAD, MNHN, 2002, ISBN 2-85653-546-1 .
- ^ JB Hall, EM O′Brian, FL Sinclair: Sclerocarya birrea a monograph. P. 45.
- ↑ online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
- ↑ online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
- ↑ a b c Sclerocarya birrea in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
- ↑ Sclerocarya birrea at KEW Science.
- ↑ Oshituthi shomagongo, marula fruit festival. In: ich.unesco.org. UNESCO, accessed on February 16, 2019 .
- ↑ The fairy tale of the drunken elephants on Wissenschaft.de, December 7, 2005.