Schotia latifolia
| Schotia latifolia | ||||||||||||
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Schotia latifolia |
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| Schotia latifolia | ||||||||||||
| Jacq. |
Schotia latifolia is a shrub or tree in the subfamily of the carob family in the legume family from southern Africa, mainly in South Africa but also in neighboring countries.
description
Schotia latifolia is mostly evergreen and grows in dry areas as a shrub up to about 3 meters high or, if there is enough water, as a tree and then becomes up to 15 meters high. The bark is relatively smooth and brown-grayish.
The stalked leaves are pinnate in pairs with a few pairs (3–5) obovate to elliptical leaflets . The slightly leathery, whole-edged and shiny leaves are rounded or blunt to round-tipped and they are often finely tipped. The leaves are up to 10–12 centimeters long, the leaflets up to 4–5 centimeters long, the veins are pinnate forward, the leaf blade is often uneven. The small stipules are sloping.
The inflorescences are terminal and paniculate . The densely standing, hermaphrodite flowers with a double flower envelope are almost sessile, they are four to five-fold. There are two sloping, scale-shaped bracts on the flowers. The green calyx is fourfold and sits on the edge of the fleshy flower cup . The sepals are rounded to rounded and slightly boat-shaped. The five-fold, unequal sized petals are white to pink, two are reduced and narrow-elongated, the larger three are laid back and partly rolled up. The pedicle ovary is medium continuously and oblong with a long, curved stylus with smaller capitate scar . The 9 or 10 stamens of unequal length and length are fused at the base, the long stamens are whitish to pink.
Brownish, leathery and elliptical, pointed to tailed legumes are formed. They are about 7-11 inches long and 4-6 inches wide. The brownish, flat and egg-shaped or rounded to elongated seeds are about 1–1.5 centimeters in size and smooth. The 3-4 seeds each carry a cup-shaped, yellowish aril .
Systematics
It was first described in 1801 by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in Fragmenta Botanica: 23, t. 15. f. 4. Synonyms are Guillandinodes latifolium (Jacq.) Kuntze , Schotia cuneifolia Gand. and Schotia diversifolia Walp.
use
The seeds are edible. The bark can be used medicinally or for dyeing and tanning .
literature
- William Jackson Hooker : Exotic Flora. Vol. II, 1825, 159 f, online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
Web links
- Schotia latifolia at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Schotia latifolia from PlanZAfrica, accessed on April 18, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
- ↑ Schotia latifolia at KEW Science.