Euclea undulata
| Family: | Ebenaceae |
| Full name: | Euclea undulata Thunb. |
| Location: | Naukluft (2416AC) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Ghwarrie, Ghwarriebos, Ghwarrieboom, Gewone Ghwarrie, Fynblaarghwarrie, Besembos, Guarri, Guarribessies, Guarriboom, Guarribos, Guarriheuning, Guarrihout, Kwar, Raasbessie, Raasbessiebos |
| English common name(s): | Common Guarri, Guarri, Mountain ebony, Small-leaved guarri bush, Fire Fighter's Blessing, Guarri Bush, Guarriwood, Thicket Euclea |
| Synonym(s): | Euclea myrtina Burch. Euclea undulata Thunb. var. myrtina (Burch.) Hiern |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Erect dense twiggy evergreen shrubs, 0.75-5 m high or trees up to 7 m high with a densely branched canopy, stems or trunks 2-15 cm in diam., bark grey, scaly; branchlets much divided, densely covered with leaves, glabrous except for rust-coloured glands which often cover the young parts giving the surface a rust-brown granular appearance. Leaves subopposite, alternate or in pseudo-whorls at ends of the branches, coriaceous (in texture often resembling old leather), shortly petioled, pale to dark green, paler and often rust-brown below when young, quite glabrous but sparsely to densely covered with rust-coloured glands which give the surface a granular appearance, obovate, oblanceolate, narrowly-elliptic or narrowly oblanceolate; base cuneate; apex obtuse, subobtuse or abruptly narrowed to a rounded tip; nervation indistinct on both surfaces or raised on upper surface, usually not raised on lower surface; margin entire, not revolute, very strongly undulate to practically flat; petioles 1-3 mm long. Inflorescence 5-20 mm long, axillary, glabrous except for rust-coloured, often stalked glands, 5-7-flowered; bracts lanceolate, boat-shaped, glandular. Flowers dioecious, white, greenish-white or cream, fragrant, mostly tetramerous. Male flowers somewhat larger than the females, 3-3.5 mm long. Calyx shallowly saucer-shaped, shallowly 4-(5-6-)lobed, glandular on the outside, or less of the length of the corolla. Corolla cup-shaped to widely bell-shaped, glabrous or with a few hairs on the lobes; tube cleft halfway or more; lobes 4(5-6), ovate. Stamens 12-20, in 2 rows, often in pairs together; filaments glabrous; anthers lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, hairy at the apex. Ovary rudimentary, situated on a fringed disc, occasionally with 2 glabrous styles and then densely covered with whitish glands. Female flowers smaller than the males, 2-2.5 mm long. Calyx saucer-shaped 4-(5-6-)lobed on the rim, glandular outside. Corolla usually campanulate, tube cleft halfway down or more, lobes 4(5-6) usually contorted, as long as or longer than the tube, usually glabrous, occasionally with a few appressed bristles. Staminodes present or absent, star-shaped, hairy upwards. Ovary depressed ovoid, situated on a fringed disc, usually densely covered with white or grey scale-like glands, usually 2-celled due to incomplete septation of two cells with septa present only in the form of a ridge (4-6-celled ovaries also found with the cells complete and a single pendulous ovule in each); styles usually 2, stout, joined at the base, glabrous; stigma obliquely crescent-shaped. Fruit a globose, fleshy berry, 4-6 mm in diam., one-seeded, red, turning purple or black when ripe. Seeds globose, 3-4 mm in diam., divided into three parts by two thin curved lines and a groove; endosperm flinty, pale grey. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Southern Africa) Evergreen shrub or small tree up to 6 m tall. Young shoots glabrous except for rusty peltate scales. Leaves usually opposite or subopposite; petiole up to 0.3 cm long; lamina up to 4 cm long and 1.5 cm broad, mostly obovate, oblanceolate or oblanceolate–elliptic, apex obtuse to broadly rounded, base cuneate, but not concave, margin often strongly undulate; lower surface glabrous except for peltate scales; lateral nerves and veins almost invisible. Inflorescence solitary in leaf–axils, unbranched, c. 1 cm long. Male flowers c. 0.3 cm long. Calyx patelliform, denticulate, glabrous except for peltate scales. Corolla deeply lobed, widely open at the throat, each lobe with 0–20 (28) strigulose hairs. Stamens c. 16, glabrous or strigulose. Pistillode with 2 simple stylodes. Female flowers without staminodes. Ovary covered with whitish scales, otherwise glabrous. Fruit c. 0.7 cm diameter. Chromosome number: 2n = 30. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) A glabrous shrub of 1–10 ft. high or a tree of moderate size up to 30 ft. high, densely branched; branches erect or ascending, terete, alternate or opposite; branchlets more or less spreading, opposite or alternate, leafy, minutely glandular towards the apex; bark whitish-grey, somewhat rough; leaves opposite and alternate, evergreen, obovate or oblanceolate, rounded or obtusely narrowed at the apex, wedge-shaped at the base, coriaceous, strongly wavy along the margin or when narrow nearly flat, entire, green above, pallid beneath, glabrous, minutely gland-dotted, 0.5–1.5 in. long, 0.2– 0.6 in. broad, narrower in the variety; lateral veins not very conspicuous, numerous; petioles 0.04– 0.1 in. long; racemes axillary; bracts deciduous, occasionally large and foliaceous; flowers dioecious, tetramerous. Male flowers hemispherical, nearly glabrous, 0.1 in. long; racemes lax, 5–7-flowered, 0.4– 0.8 in. long; pedicels slender, 0.1– 0.25 in. long; calyx broadly cup-shaped, short, cleft half-way down; lobes deltoid and pointed; corolla cleft more than half-way down; lobes oval; stamens 10–15, mostly in pairs; filaments slender, 0.01– 0.02 in. long; anthers oblong or obovate-oblong, apiculate, 0.05– 0.0625 in. long, with a few hairs towards the apex; ovary rudimentary, hairy; styles 2. Female flowers campanulate, 0.075– 0.1 in. long, nearly glabrous; racemes 3–8-flowered, suberect in flower, drooping in fruit, 0.25– 0.5 in. long; pedicels mostly opposite, more or less patent in open flower and fruit, 0.075– 0.1 in. long; bracteoles narrow, small, deciduous; calyx campanulate, cleft scarcely half-way down, 0.0333 in. long, not accrescent; lobes deltoid; corolla deeply cleft; segments oblong, more or less recurved near the apex, pale chestnut colour; staminodes 0; ovary ovoid, 2–4-celled, 0.04 in. long, 0.0333 in. in diam., glabrous above, with some short whitish slender hairs around the base; ovules 4, oblong; styles 2, united at the base, 0.05 in. long, glabrous; stigmas 2, bifid at the apex; fruit globose, purple or red, or at length black, glabrous, edible, 0.167– 0.2 in. in diam., 1- or 2-celled, at length 1-celled and 1-seeded; seed 0.167 in. in diam.; albumen equable. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) |
| 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: | 02 Apr 2015 |
| Camera make: | PENTAX |
| Camera model: | PENTAX K-x |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/100 s |
| ISO speed: | 100 |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
