Terminalia stenostachya

Terminalia stenostachya Engl. & Diels

Common names

Rosette cluster leaf (English); chibowe (Bemba); macula-mungonone (Kunda); chikulyungu, mkukwe, waukulu, napini (Nyanja).

General description and distinguishing characteristics

Terminalia stenostachya is most easily recognised by its deeply fissured bark and its clusters or large leave with red tinged leaf stalks. It is a small to medium-sized tree or shrub 5-12 m in height with a rounded crown. Bark dark brown to grey-black, deeply longitudinally fissured. Branchlets usually hairy or with greyish brown fibrous bark and prominent leaf scars. Leaves simple, arranged in spirals or clusters, large, 11-18 x 4.5-5.5 cm. Leaves leathery, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, mid- to dark green above, paler below. Petiole 1.5-3 cm long, often red tinged. Flowers cream, strongly scented, produced in axillary spikes 10-16 cm long (October-January). Fruit a flattened, two-winged capsule, dark red, crimson or yellowish red 4.5-6.2 x 2.4-3 cm (February-August).

Terminalia stenostachya can be confused with Terminalia mollis. The main differences are that T. mollis does not have red-tinged petioles; its fruits are larger (8 x 5.5 cm) and green, not red; and the branchlets of T. mollis are corky not stringy. T. mollis is not recorded from the Valley but is widespread in Zambia

Distribution and habitat

Terminalia stenostachya occurs in Tanzania, DR Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. In the Luangwa valley it is dominant in Combretum-Terminalia-Diospyros wooded grassland in the foothills of the Muchinga escarpment.