Tabernaemontana elegans

Petite Toad Tree ( Tabernaemontana elegans)

The Dainty Toad Tree ( Tabernaemontana elegans ), also called Windmill jasmine, is a plant species in the subfamily Rauvolfioideae within the family of the dogbane family ( Apocynaceae ). The natural range is in East Africa and Southern Africa.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Description

Appearance, bark and leaf

The Dainty toads tree grows as a shrub or small tree and reaches stature heights of 1.5mm up to 12 meters. The cylindrical stems have a diameter of 5 to 30 cm. The light - brown, korkige, deeply fissured bark makes this wood more or less fire-resistant. The branches have a light - brown bark korkige, the longitudinal cracks caused by leaf scars transverse ridges and scattered lenticels of the same color. The bark of the branches is bald.

The constantly against arranged on the branches leaves are divided into petiole and leaf blade. The bald petiole is 7-30 mm long. The already leathery when driving off, simple leaf blades have a variable size, with a length of (rarely 4 to ) 5.5 to 23 cm and a width of (rarely 1 to ) 2 to 8 cm, they are two to four times as long as wide and narrow to broadly elliptic with wedge-shaped or reduce ongoing in the petiole Spreitenbasis and often with a blunt tip sharpened, pointed or blunt upper end. The leaf margin is smooth. Mostly, both sheet surfaces are glabrous, rarely the lower leaf surface is hairy fluffy. On both sides of the central nerve are 12-23 lateral nerves available currently, with the exception of the Spreitenspitze, where they are bent upward ( anastomos ); fischkrätenartig form the lateral veins at an angle of 70 to 90 ° with the midrib. The veins of the third order are reticulate, particularly clearly seen in old leaves.

Inflorescence and flower

In Southern Africa, the flowering period of spring to autumn ranges. Those with a length of 1 to 8.5 cm short to long, very thin Blütenstandsschäfte are bare except sometimes hairy scattered short. Most many flowers are in a loose inflorescence, which has a length of 5 to 20 cm and a diameter of 5 to 15 cm. The bracts ( bracts ) are scale-like and about as long as the sepals; they fall off early and have a number Colle Teren (glands ) in their armpits. The 2-6 mm long flower stems are glabrous to hairy sometimes scattered short.

The sweetly scented flowers attract many insects. The hermaphrodite flowers are radial symmetry and fünfzählig double perianth. The five bright green, nearly free sepals are shorter to equal long as wide, almost circular or broadly ovate, with a length of 1.2 to 2.5 mm and a width of 1.2 to 2.5 mm one-fifth. The sepals are outside glabrous to sometimes hairy and fluffy inside, they have at their base a series of rounded and upright Colle Teren (glands ). The five petals are fused. The petals have fully trained in the bud a total length of 8.5 to 15 mm, which own and one with a length of 3.5 to 8 mm and a width of the Kronlappen 1/3 to about 1/2 the length of the bud between 3.5 and 6 mm wide formed ovoid head with a blunt top. The white, off-white to pale yellow petals are glabrous outside or they have some small hairs ( trichomes ) and inside they have a dense fluffy hairy belt from the starting point of the stamens to the mouth. The case of a diameter from 1.8 to 2.4 mm, almost cylindrical corolla tube with a length of 5 to 7 mm 2.5 - to 4 - times as long as the calyx; it is dilated both at their base and short narrows below the starting points of the stamens and the throat. The sickle-shaped and rounded Kronlappen are at a length of 8 to 15 mm and a width of 3 to 7 mm 1.3 - so long as the corolla tube of up to 2.5 times. The Corolla lobe are auriculate at the base on the left side a bit. It's just a circle with five fertile stamens present; they do not project beyond the crown and ending 1-2 mm below the Kronmaules. The shelter free stamens are inserted 2 to 2.7 mm above the base of the corolla tube in. The bare dust bag have a length of 2 to 2.5 mm and a width of 0.6 to 0.7 mm. The bald stamp is 3.5 to 4.2 mm long. Two carpels are fused into a superior ovaries, which is 1 to 1.2 mm nearly spherical flattened at a size of 1.2 to 1.6 mm × 1.2 to 1.4 × to nearly cylindrical and laterally. The carpel is about 35 to 60 ovules present. The stylus has a length of 1 to 1.2 mm and a diameter of 0.2 mm and is widened at its upper end. The upright, long scar is barrel-shaped; it has a " Clavuncula ", which consists of two rings: the bottom is 0.5 to 0.8 mm × 0.1 mm smaller, and the upper 0.3 to 0.4 mm × 0.5 to 0, 6 mm wide, but gradually changes in a length of rare meist1 0.5 mm into the narrower.

Fruit and seeds

The at a size of 5 to 8 cm × 4 to 6.5 cm × 4-5 cm ovoid or ellipsoidal wrong part fruits are bluish- green to green with conspicuous light brown warts and bespitzt with three ridges that are more pronounced in dry fruits. The fruits are part zweifächerig and contain many seeds. It is a thick, orange -colored aril available. The dark brown, matt seeds have a size of 14 to 15 mm × 7-9 mm × 6-7 mm, and have a surface that looks like a brain and tiny by reticulated furrows has warts.

Occurrence

Tabernaemontana elegans is widely used in East Africa and Southern Africa. Locations are in: Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South African provinces of KwaZulu -Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

In the tropical East Africa thrives at altitudes 0-700 meters in woodland, usually in association with Brachystegia species, often near the coast and there on the dunes, less often in the inland and then in gallery forests.

Taxonomy

The first description of Tabernaemontana elegans in 1894 by Otto Stapf in Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 1894 ( 1), pp. 24-25. A synonym for Tabernaemontana elegans Stapf is Conopharyngia elegans (tap) Stapf.

Swell

• Michael Cheek: Tabernaemontana elegans Stapf. at PlantZAfrica the South African National Biodiversity Institute = SANBI. September 2010. (Section Description, occurrence and use)
• Anthonius Josephus Maria Van Leeuwenberg: Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 7 (2 ), 1985, pp. 439-440: Tabernaemontana elegans Stapf - Full -text online. (Section Description and occurrence)
• Braam Van Wyk, Piet Van Wyk: Field Guide to Trees of Southern Africa ( Field Guides ), Struik Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1-86825-922-6: Tabernaemontana elegans on S. 312 (Section Description, occurrence and use)
• Entry in Flora of Zimbabwe.