Water pear

Water pear
Systematics
	Rosids
	Eurosiden II
Order :	Myrtle-like (Myrtales)
Family :	Myrtle family (Myrtaceae)
Genre :	Syzygium
Type :	Water pear
Scientific name
	Syzygium guineense
	( Willd. ) DC.

The water pear ( Syzygium guineense ) is a species of tree from the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) that occurs wild or cultivated in many parts of Africa .

Local names are e.g. B. Bambara Kokisa or Oromo Baddessa and others.

features

The stature height of the evergreen water pear is usually between 10 and 15 meters, but there are also some higher specimens, up to 25 meters in height or more known. The trunk is gray-brown, slightly scaly to smooth and up to 200 cm thick. There may be higher buttress roots . The bark is smooth when young, but becomes rough and black with age. The branches are thick and angular, the branches can fall off over time.

The young leaves are purple in color, but turn dark green as they ripen. The opposite and stalked, leathery leaves are glossy and smooth on top, paler on the underside. They are elliptical, lanceolate to ovate or obovate, the tip is blunt to rounded or rounded to pointed. The central vein of the finely pinnate nerve and the entire margins are yellowish.

Multi-flowered and terminal, stalked cymes are formed. The fragrant, four-fold and hermaphrodite flowers with a double bloom are sessile or pseudo-stalked . The calyx, with small tips, is fused with the stem-shaped elongated flower base. The petals are very small and fall off as a whole ( pseudo kalyptra ) when the flower opens. The flowers have many white, showy and long, free stamens that are up to 10 millimeters long. They give off a honey-sweet odor that attracts many insects . The two-chamber ovary is subordinate with a long stylus .

Usually solitary, shiny and red to dark purple, up to 3.5 cm large, round berries or drupes are formed. The constant calyx-lobes sit at the tip.

Taxonomy

It was first described in 1828 by Augustin-Pyrame de Candolle in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis 3: 259. Synonyms are Calyptranthes guineensis Willd. , Eugenia fourcadei Dumber , Eugenia guineensis (Willd.) Baill. ex Laness. and Syzygium fourcadei (Dumber) Burtt Davy .

Systematics

Syzygium guineense is a very diverse species which has led to discussions about its taxonomy , including its subspecies. Frank White lists four subspecies: subsp. afromontanum , subsp. barotsense , subsp. guineense and subsp. huillense , the last of which is a subshrub . It is still subsp. urophyllum and Syzygium guineense var. littorale .

use

Both the fruit and the leaves are edible; the pulp and skin are sucked and the seeds spit out. The tree is sometimes referred to as the water berry , but this can also refer to other Syzygium species.

In southern Ethiopia , S. guineense is an extremely valued shade provider for the homestead and the house garden. Wild forms occur from sea level up to an altitude of 2,100 meters. It prefers moist soils with a high water table near rivers, but this species also grows in open forests. Their fruits and leaves serve as starvation food and are eaten by subsistence farmers when there are crop failures.

Web links

Syzigium guineense at Famine Food Field Guide (English).
Syzygium guineense from Useful Tropical Plants, accessed October 17, 2018.
Syzygium guineense from PROTA, accessed on October 17, 2018.
Syzygium guineense . In: S. Dressler, M. Schmidt, G. Zizka (Eds.): African plants - A Photo Guide. Senckenberg, Frankfurt / Main 2014.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Syzigium guineense. Famine Food Field Guide, accessed June 25, 2018 .
^ Margaret Steentoft: Flowering Plants in West Africa. Cambridge University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-521-26192-9 , p. 53.
^ Paul Smith, Quentin Allen: Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of the Miombo Woodlands. Kew 2004, ISBN 978-1-84246-073-3 .
↑ Syzygium guineense at KEW Science, accessed on October 17, 2018.
^ Syzygium guineense at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
↑ Yves Guinand, Dechassa Lemessa: Wild-Food Plants in Southern Ethiopia: Reflections on the role of 'famine-foods' at a time of drought. ( DOC ) UNDP Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia, March 10, 2000, accessed June 25, 2018 .

[famine-1] Syzigium guineense. Famine Food Field Guide, accessed June 25, 2018 .

[2] Margaret Steentoft: Flowering Plants in West Africa. Cambridge University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-521-26192-9 , p. 53.

[smith-3] Paul Smith, Quentin Allen: Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of the Miombo Woodlands. Kew 2004, ISBN 978-1-84246-073-3 .

[4] Syzygium guineense at KEW Science, accessed on October 17, 2018.

[5] Syzygium guineense at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

[guinand-6] Yves Guinand, Dechassa Lemessa: Wild-Food Plants in Southern Ethiopia: Reflections on the role of 'famine-foods' at a time of drought. ( DOC ) UNDP Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia, March 10, 2000, accessed June 25, 2018 .