Commiphora glandulosa

Commiphora glandulosa Schinz

Common names

Tall firethorn corkwood (English); chitonto (Bemba/Nyanja); nsofwa, chifundaziche (Kunda/Nyanja); zovwa (Kunda/Tumbuka)

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A small tree up to 8 m tall. Bark smooth, grey and papery; branchlets glabrous, spiny. Leaves single (occasionally with two tiny lateral leaflets), produced in clusters on the ends of the branches or on short side shoots. Leaves up to 7 x 3 cm but often smaller; obovate, shiny, hairless, mid-green, paler below with occasional glands; margins coarsely toothed. Petiole up to 2 mm long. Flowers produced before the leaves in clusters on side shoots or borne on the spines. Inconspicuous, greenish pink petals 4-5 mm long; outside of the calyx densely covered in glands (September-October). Fruit ovoid, 7-9 mm in diameter, with a pointed apex, green, hairless; pseudaril 3-4 lobed but rarely present (October-February).

Some authorities regard Commiphora glandulosa as a subspecies of Commiphora pyracanthoides. The latter is a small shrub, 1-2 m in height, with no glands on the calyx.

Range and habitat

Commiphora glandulosa is found in dry woodland and on termite mounds throughout southern Africa. In the valley it occurs in Colophospermum mopane woodland and scrub woodland on clay. It is not common.