Commiphora mossambicensis

Commiphora mossambicensis (Oliv.) Engl.

Common names

Pepper-leaved corkwood (English); chitonto (Bemba); nsofwa (Kunda); chaowa-mapili (Tumbuka).

The English name of this species refers to the peppery smell of the crushed leaves.

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A small tree up to 10 m tall but usually much smaller in the valley. Bark smooth, grey; branchlets densely hairy. Leaves compound, trifoliate, occasionally imparipinnate with two pairs of leaflets plus a terminal leaflet. Leaflets up to 7 x 8.5 cm, broadly ovate to sub-circular, with an acuminate apex; margins entire. Hairy on both leaflet surfaces, although sometimes glabrous, and with minute golden glands. Petiole up to 10 cm long. Flowers produced in sprays up to 7 cm long. Individual flowers yellowish to pinkish, small and inconspicuous, calyx 1.5 mm long (September-December). Fruit ovoid, almost spherical, 10 mm in diameter, sparsely hairy and glandular, reddish to blackish, with a 4-lobed red pseudaril (January-July).

Range and habitat

Commiphora mossambicensis occurs in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It is often associated with miombo woodland on stony hills. In the valley it is found in Colophospermum mopane scrub woodland and in Combretum-Terminalia-Diospyros wooded grassland in the foothills of the Muchinga mountains.