Gymnosporia senegalensis
| Family: | Celastraceae |
| Full name: | Gymnosporia senegalensis (Lam.) Loes. |
| Location: | Sesriem canyon (2415DB) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Rooi pendoring, Blou pendoring, Pendoring |
| English common name(s): | Confetti tree, Confetti spikethorn, Confetti thorn, Red spikethorn |
| Synonym(s): | Celastrus saharae Batt. Celastrus senegalensis Lam. Celastrus senegalensis Lam. var. inermis A.Rich. Gymnosporia antunesii Loes. fide Fl. Cameroun 19: 24 (1975). Gymnosporia baumii Loes. fide Fl. Zambes. Gymnosporia benguelensis Loes. fide Fl. Cameroun 19: 24 (1975). Gymnosporia crenulata Engl. Gymnosporia dinteri Loes. fide Fl. Zambes. Gymnosporia eminiana Loes. fide Fl. Trop. E. Africa Gymnosporia eremoecusa Loes. Gymnosporia intermedia Chiov. Gymnosporia senegalensis (Lam.) Loes. var. inermis (A.Rich.) Loes. Gymnosporia senegalensis (Lam.) Loes. var. spinosa Engl. ex Loes. Maytenus baumii (Loes.) Exell & Mendonça |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Shrub or small multi-stemmed tree, unarmed or with spines. Flowers in dense axillary and terminal clusters, sweetly scented. Shrub or small multi-stemmed tree, unarmed or with strong, straight spines. Young branches distinctly red. Leaves blue-green, spirally arranged, sometimes in fascicles on the spines, oblong to obovate, often notched at the apex; margins crenate-dentate. Flowers in dense axillary and terminal clusters, sweetly scented. Fruit a 2-lobed capsule pinkish to reddish-brown when ripe. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) A savannah shrub or small tree, up to 16 ft. high; young shoots often red; flowers whitish; fruit red. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of West Tropical Africa) Shrub or tree or rarely a shrublet, (0.15)1–9(15) m high, unarmed or with spines up to 4 cm long, axillary or terminating short axillary branches, glabrous, without latex; branches unlined, flattened, reddish-purple to reddish-brown, often densely glaucous, and sometimes with numerous pale indistinct lenticels at first, becoming terete and eventually grey-brown. Leaves fasciculate or not, petiolate;lamina pale green, usually glaucous, sometimes with reddish midrib, often mottled (at least when dry), 2–11.6 x 0.4–5.7(6.3) cm, oblong or rarely ovate to obovate or oblanceolate or oblong-elliptic or rarely subcircular, rounded or retuse to obtuse or apiculate at the apex, with margin densely regularly obtusely serrulate or serrulate-crenulate to subentire or very rarely entire, cuneate to angustate at the base, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, with lateral nerves and relatively lax reticulate venation slightly prominent or not prominent; petiole 3–13(20) mm long. Cymes dichasial at first, becoming monochasial, solitary and axillary or 1–6 on short axillary shoots or occasionally in axillary panicles, with peduncle 1–16 mm long;pedicels 0.7–4(6) mm long, articulated in the lower 1/3 or rarely 1/2; flowers 3–60 or more in each cyme, 2–6 mm in diam., dioecious or rarely monoecious, scented. Sepals 5, subequal, 0.3–1.2 mm long, oblong-lanceolate to ovate-triangular or subcircular, obtuse to rounded with margin ciliolate. Petals 5, white or greenish-white to pale yellow, sometimes tinged pink, 1–3.5 mm long, elliptic to oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, with margin finely ciliolate. Male flowers with stamens 5, shorter than the petals, with filaments 0.5–1 mm long, slender, arising below disk;disk relatively broad, flat or slightly concave, shallowly 5–10-lobed; pistillode small, globose. Female flowers with staminodes 5, shorter than ovary; disk as in male flowers; ovary 2(3)-locular, globose, scarcely immersed in the disk; style about as long as ovary, 2(3)-fid at the apex, with small stigmas. Capsule pink to deep red, 2–6 mm long, globose to pyriform, coriaceous, smooth. Seeds 1–2, dark reddish-brown, glossy, with a fleshy smooth rose-pink aril obliquely covering the lower 1/3–2/3. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| 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: | 20 Mar 2007 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/500 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
