Voacanga africana

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Voacanga africana
Voacanga africana.jpg

Voacanga africana

Systematics
Order : Enzianartige (Gentianales)
Family : Dog poison family (Apocynaceae)
Subfamily : Rauvolfioideae
Tribe : Tabernaemontaneae
Genre : Voacanga
Type : Voacanga africana
Scientific name
Voacanga africana
Stapf

Voacanga africana is a species of plant within the dog venom family(Apocynaceae). It is sometimes called the voacanga bush. It iswidespreadin tropical Africa .

description

Appearance and bark

Voacanga africana grows as a shrub-like, small tree or shrub and reaches heights of usually 1 to 10, rarely up to 25 meters. The cylindrical trunk has a diameter of 2 to 30, rarely up to 40 centimeters. The bark is greyish and smooth or sometimes flatly cracked near the base. On the bark of the branches and twigs are clearly Lentizellen be seen. The bark of the young twigs is smooth to downy hairy. There is more white milky sap in the bark than in the bark. The low crown is spread out.

leaf

The against-constantly arranged on the branches leaves are stalked usually sessile (= sitting) or, more rarely short. If a petiole is present, then it is hairy bald to downy and up to 2 inches long. The petioles of a pair of leaves are fused to form a short ochrea that does not broaden into intrapetiolar stipples. In the leaf axils there are glands in the form of a number of colleters. The leaf blades are relatively variable in shape and size. The simple leaf blade is usually 15 to 17 centimeters (7 to 41.5 centimeters) long and 3 to 20 centimeters wide, 1.5 to 3.5, rarely up to 4 times as long as wide and narrow to broadly elliptical to obovate with a wedge-shaped or sloping blade base and a pointed or abruptly blunt upper end that merges into a distinct point. The upper side of the leaf is dark green and shiny, the underside of the leaf is lighter green than the upper side. The leaf blade is usually light green at flowering time and a little darker at fruiting time. When fresh, the leaf blades are membranous and dried, parchment-like. Both leaf sides are usually bare, the underside or the midrib of the underside of the leaf can be hairy downy. There are 8 to 22 lateral nerves on both sides of the median nerve and the other nerves are barely visible.

Inflorescence and pedicel

The usually relatively long inflorescence stem and the inflorescence axes are light green and glabrous to sparsely hairy. Including the inflorescence stem, the inflorescence is 6 to 25 centimeters long with a diameter of 4 to 15 centimeters. Laterally or terminally loosely branched heady inflorescences are formed in which many flowers are loosely distributed. The ovate and blunt bracts usually fall off before the flower buds have reached full size. The bracts are about as long as the sepals and in their leaf axils there are few durable colleters. The uppermost bracts are often narrower. All bracts leave conspicuous leaf scars. The slender, light green and bald to sparsely downy hairy flower stalk is 3 to 20 millimeters long.

blossom

The strong and unpleasant smelling, hermaphrodite flowers are 3 to 4 centimeters in diameter and have radial symmetry and five-fold with a double flower envelope .

The five sepals are light green and usually lighter inside. They are shed after the petals have been shed and before the fruit develops. The sepals, 7 to 19 millimeters long, are fused as long as they stand upright. The sepals are hairy on the inside and outside, either bald or downy. In the calyx there is a zone up to 1 to 2 millimeters long from the base of the calyx tube to the base of the calyx lobes with colleters, the topmost being arranged irregularly or in one to three superimposed rows. The goblet-shaped goblet tube is 3.5 to 9 millimeters long. The calyx lobes are 0.8 to 1.3 times longer than the calyx tube. The five upright and mostly partially curved back, almost identical calyx lobes are 3.5 to 8 millimeters long and 3.5 to 8 millimeters wide and 0.7 to 1.3, rarely up to 1.7 times as long as wide and broadly ovoid to oblong with a blunt, rounded, truncated, edged upper end. The sepals are in the flower bud overlapping like roof tiles with a smooth edge.

The five petals are cream, greenish-cream, yellow or less often white. In the fully developed flower bud, the petals are 17 to 31 millimeters long, with the corolla lobes measuring 8.5 to 19 millimeters being 1/2 to 2/3 the length of the bud. The petals are glabrous on both sides or, less often, tiny downy hairy and often downy hairy inside. The five petals are fused Roehrig. At 7 to 15 millimeters, the corolla tube is slightly shorter to slightly longer than the calyx (as long as the calyx lobes are upright) and cylindrical. The crown throat has a diameter of 3 to 5 millimeters. The corolla lobes are 1.4 to 2.5 times as long as the corolla tube. With a length of 12 to 37 millimeters and a width of 7 to 16 millimeters, the five corolla lobes are rarely 1.1 to usually 1.5 to 2.2 times as long as wide and narrow, obovate or elliptical with a rounded shape or blunt upper end, the edges of which are usually bent upwards. The entire corolla lobes are spread out and often later bent back.

There is only one circle with five connected stamens . The stamens are inserted in the corolla tube 2 to 3 millimeters below the corolla throat. The stamens protrude from the corolla tube by 0.5 to 1.2 millimeters or are sometimes about the same length as the corolla tube. Stamens are not visible. The seated bald anthers are 4 to 5 millimeters long and 1.3 to 2.5 millimeters wide and narrow triangular with an arrow-shaped base and a pointed sterile upper end.

The two 1.6 to 2.5 millimeter long carpels are only connected at their base by a ring-shaped, disc-like thickening 0.8 to 1.2 millimeters high and at the upper end by the stylus. There are about 200 ovules in each carpel. The bald stylus is twisted and divided at its base and, with a length of 4 to 8 millimeters, is narrowly inverted-conical and at the upper end somewhat narrower than the clavuncula. The so-called clavuncula is 1 to 1.7 millimeters long with a diameter of 1 to 1.7 millimeters and has a ring with a diameter of 1.7 to 3 millimeters.

Fruit and seeds

The fruits are often in pairs, sometimes only one of the two fruits develops. With a length and width of 3 to 8 centimeters and a diameter of 2.5 to 7 centimeters, the fruits are asymmetrically egg-shaped or almost spherical and flattened on the sides. The fruits are speckled green with brown lenticels ; they become light brown when dried. The fruits open with two fruit flaps, the walls of which are 5 to 15 millimeters thick and they contain many seeds. The seeds are in a yellow to orange aril . The dark brown, dull seeds are 7 to 10 millimeters long, 3.5 to 5 millimeters wide and 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter, obliquely ellipsoidal with four to five furrows and the surface is tiny warty.

Chromosome number

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.

Occurrence

Voacanga africana is widespread in tropical Africa and is found on islands in the Gulf of Guinea. There are sites in Sudan , Kenya , Tanzania , Uganda , Angola , Malawi , Mozambique , Zambia , Zimbabwe , Benin , Burkina Faso , Gambia , Ghana , Guinea , Guinea-Bissau , Liberia , Mali , Nigeria , Senegal , Sierra Leone , Togo , Burundi , Cameroon , Central African Republic , Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , Republic of the Congo and Zaire .

Voacanga africana thrives at altitudes of 0 to 1000 meters in open woodlands or in sparse forests, gallery forests or only in damp locations in savannas .

Taxonomy

Voacanga africana was first published by Otto Stapf . The specific epithet africana means African. Synonyms for Voacanga africana Stapf are: Voacanga africana var. Auriculata Pichon , Voacanga angolensis Stapf ex Hiern , Voacanga boehmii K.Schum. , Voacanga lutescens Stapf , Voacanga schweinfurthii Stapf .

Chemical structure of voacangin
Chemical structure of voacamin

Ingredients and usage

Mainly seeds and bark contain voacanga alkaloids such as voacangine , voacamin , voacamidine , voacorine . The parts of the plant can be found in native African peoples . a. use as a hallucinogen for cult ceremonies and as an aphrodisiac .

Ethnomedical use

A decoction from the trunk or root bark is used to treat mental disorders and as an analgesic . The milk juice is applied to carious teeth. In southeastern Nigeria will Voacanga africana used in many healing rituals.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah AJM Leeuwenberg, FK Kupicha et al .: Apocynaceae , In: Flora Zambesiaca , Volume 7, 1985. Full text online.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Meg Coates Palgrave: Flora of Zimbabwe , 2016: online.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Meg Coates Palgrave: Flora of Malawi , 2016: online.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Meg Coates Palgrave: Flora of Mozambique , 2016: online.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Meg Coates Palgrave: Flora of Zambia , 2016: online.
  6. ↑ a b Lexicon of Medicinal Plants and Drugs , Spektrum Akademischer Verlag 1999.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Maurice M. Iwu: Handbook of African Medicinal Plants . 2nd Edition. CRC Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4665-7198-3 ( Voacanga africana on p. 330 in the Google book search).
  8. ^ Voacanga africana at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
  9. ^ A b Voacanga africana in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved April 26, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Voacanga africana  - collection of images, videos and audio files