Commiphora pedunculata

Commiphora pedunculata (Kotschy & Peyr.) Engl.

Common names

Chitonto (Bemba/Nyanja); nsofwa, chifundaziche (Kunda/Nyanja); zovwa (Kunda/Tumbuka)

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall but usually smaller in the valley. Bark papery; young branchlets densely hairy. Leaves compound, imparipinnate with 2-5 pairs of leaflets plus one terminal leaflet. Leaflets up to 8.5 x 3.7 cm, obovate-oblong to oblong with a coarsely toothed margin. Leaflets sparsely hairy with the veins prominent on the lower leaflet surface. Petiole up to 3 cm long, densely hairy. Flowers in axillary sprays up to 5 cm long. Individual flowers yellowish to pinkish, small and inconspicuous, petals 4 mm long (October-November). Fruit sub-globose, somewhat flattened, 1.4 cm in diameter, hairy, green to brownish red, with a 4-lobed red pseudaril (November-July).

Range and habitat

Commiphora pedunculata occurs in mixed woodland from Nigeria, across to Sudan and southwards to Zambia. In the Luangwa valley it is found occasionally in Combretum-Terminalia and hill miombo wooded grassland in the foothills of the Muchinga mountains.