Grewia flava
| Family: | Tiliaceae |
| Full name: | Grewia flava DC. |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Fluweelrosyntjie(bos), Wilderosyntjie, Brandewynbessie, Rosyntjiebos |
| English common name(s): | Velvet raisin, Wild currant, Brandy bush, Raisin tree |
| Synonym(s): | Grewia cana Sond. Grewia hermannioides Harv. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Yellow flowers. Dense multi-stemmed shrub, up to 2 m tall, occasionally a taller small tree. Bark dark grey-brown; young branches velvety, becoming dark purple-black. Leaves alternate, often held upright, elliptic to oblanceolate-obovate, up to 7 x 2.5 cm, 3-veined from the almost symmetric base, grey-green above, paler below, finely hairy on both surfaces or more so below; margin finely to somewhat coarsely toothed. Flowers yellow fading to orange-brown, 1.5 cm in diameter, solitary or in few-flowered axillary heads. Fruit spherical or 2-lobed, c. 8 mm in diameter, reddish-brown when ripe, edible. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Compact shrub about 2 m tall; young branchlets greyish or greyish brown, tomen-tellous; older branches dark purplish black. Leaf-blade 14-70 x 7.5-25 mm, elliptic or oblanceolate, rounded at the apex, cuneate and equal-sided at the base, margin finely serrulate to dentate, very finely and closely to-mentellous above, rarely glabrescent, somewhat paler and more densely tomentellous below, venation fairly prominent and reticulate; petiole about 2 mm long, tomentellous; stipules about 5 mm long, subulate, tomentellous. Inflorescences all axillary; peduncles 7.5-10 mm long, tomentellous; pedicels normally 1 per peduncle, up to 10 mm long, tomentellous; basal bracts 3-4 mm long, very caducous, subulate, tomentellous. Buds obovoid, slightly sulcate. Sepals about 8 mm long, rarely up to 14 mm long, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, greenish grey tomentellous without, yellow and glabrous within, 3-nerved. Petals yellow, about 2/3 the length of the sepals, linear-oblong to oblanceolate, with a basal nectariferous claw circumvillous within, ledged above and sparsely pilose outside. Androgynophore about 1 mm tall, glabrous except at the apex, not extended above the node. Ovary villous, shallowly 2-lobed or 1-lobed by abortion, when the style is eccentrically placed on the ovary; style about 4 mm long, glabrous, with flattened, broad, stigma-lobes. Fruit about 8 mm in diam., globose or bilobed-globose, sparsely setulose, glabrescent, reddish when ripe. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Southern Africa) Branches and twigs rigid, canescent; leaves on short petioles, exactly elliptical, very obtuse, crenulate, glabrous above, canescent below, 3-nerved at base; peduncles one-flowered; fl.-buds oblong; sepals 3- nerved, longer than the bifid petals, canescent; drupes bilobed, black, hispid and furrowed. A rigid, divaricately much branched, canescent shrub, with small, exactly oval leaves and yellow flowers. The berries are eaten by the country-folk. Leaves 0.5 inch long, 0.25 inch wide. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Compact shrub c. 2 m tall; young branchlets greyish or greyish-brown, tomentellous; older branches dark purplish-black. Leaf-lamina 1.4–7 × 0.75 — 2.5 cm, elliptic or oblanceolate, rounded at the apex, margin finely serrulate to dentate, cuneate and equal-sided at the base, very finely and closely tomentellous above, somewhat paler and more densely tomentellous below, venation fairly prominent and reticulate; petiole c. 2 mm long, tomentellous; stipules c. 5 mm long, subulate, tomentellous. Inflorescences all axillary; peduncles 7.5–10 mm long, tomentellous; pedicels normally 1 per peduncle, up to 1 cm long, tomentellous; basal bracts 3–4 mm long, very caducous, subulate, tomentellous. Flower-buds obovoid, slightly sulcate. Sepals c. 8 mm long, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, greenish-grey-tomentellous without, yellow and glabrous within, 3-nerved. Petals yellow, c. 2/3 the length of the sepals, linear-oblong to oblanceolate, with a basal nectariferous claw circumvillous within ledged above and sparsely pilose outside. Androgynophore c. 1 mm tall, glabrous except at the apex, not extended above the node. Ovary villous, shallowly 2-lobed or 1-lobed by abortion when the style is eccentrically placed on the ovary; style c. 4 mm long, glabrous, with flattened, broad, stigma-lobes. Fruit reddish when ripe, c. 8 mm in diam., globose or 2-lobed, sparsely setulose, glabrescent. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) Semi-deciduous, compact shrub. BRANCHLETS sturdy, grey. LEAVES erect; silvery grey-green and densely woolly above; paler below; base tapering, slightly asymmetric. INFLORESCENCE axillary, one-flowered. FLOWERS yellow, one per stalk. FRUIT a round to bilobed berry, up to 8 mm in diameter; dark brown when ripe. Flowers and fruit are conspicuous. Easily confused with G. bicolor, but distinguished by the more erect leaves and unbranched flower and fruit stalks. (from Tree Atlas of Namibia) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 18 Dec 2006 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/800 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
