Drypetes mossambicensis

Drypetes mossambicensis Hutch.

Common names

Lowveld ironplum (English); mushosho, kafupakachimbwe (Kunda, Nyanja).

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A medium sized tree with a dense crown, Drypetes mossambicensis can grow up to 18 m in height but is usually somewhat smaller in the valley. Bark dark grey, cracking and forming small plates that sometimes flake. Leaves simple, opposite, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, apex usually rounded; 3-11 x 2-5 cm. Leaves are fresh, shiny green with a blue tinge, particularly underneath; maqrgin entire, wavy. Petiole 3-8 mm long. Flowers tiny, yellow, produced in clusters in leaf scars and along branchlets. Dioecious. Male flowers produced in fasicles in the leaf axils; female flowers in 1s or 2s. Flowers produced in Serptember-December but can appear at almost any time of the year. Fruit yellow, ellipsoid, glabrous and fleshy, 1.5 x 0.8 cm, with a persistent, cup-like calyx. Fruit stalk up to 3.5 cm long (May-June)..

Range and habitat

Drypetes mossambicensis is a tropical species extending up from eastern South Africa and Mozambique. It is fairly common in thicket in the South Luangwa National Park but is not recorded in North Luangwa National Park.