Afrocanthium pseudorandii

Afrocanthium pseudorandii (Bridson) Lantz (Canthium pseudorandii Bridson; Canthium burtii Bullock subsp. glabrum Bridson)

Common names

Mottled bark rock alder (English); kumungaye (Nyanja, Tumbuka).

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A shrub or small tree, 2-8 m tall. Bark dark red-brown or purplish; branchlets green, pubescent. Leaves simple, opposite, with interpetiolar stipules; mid-green, elliptic to broadly elliptic, 4.5-13 x 2.5-12.5 cm, usually with only one pair of leaves on each branch. Petioles 5-13 mm long. Flowers small, yellow, produced in clusters of 10-30-flowered cymes (November-December). Fruit ovoid, 7-9 x 8-9 mm, ripening yellowish (February-March).

Range and habitat

Afrocanthium pseudorandii occurs in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. In the Luangwa valley it is associated with mixed alluvial thicket and Combretum thicket. It is not common.