Commiphora marlothii

Commiphora marlothii Engl.

Common names

Paper-bark corkwood (English); musamba

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A small tree up to 5 m tall. Bark yellowish, peeling to reveal green underbark; branchlets densely hairy. Leaves compound, imparipinnate with 3-4 pairs of leaflets plus one terminal leaflet. Leaflets typically 6 x 3.3 cm, oblong to obovate-oblong with a coarsely toothed margin. Densely hairy on both leaflet surfaces. Petiole up to 10 cm long. Flowers appearing with the leaves in axillary clusters 4-15 cm long. Individual flowers yellow, small and inconspicuous, petals 2-3 mm long (October-November). Fruit ovoid, almost spherical, 10 mm in diameter, with a pointed tip, green to red, with a 3-4-lobed yellow or red pseudaril (November-March).

Range and habitat

Commiphora marlothii occurs in open woodland and on rocky hills in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia. In the Luangwa valley it is found in Combretum-Terminalia woodland, and hill miombo woodland on the rocky, thin soiled slopes of the Muchinga escarpment.