General Info – summary

This dioecious Tree with its greyish brown, rough, flaky bark is usually up to 8m high or a shrub.  The large Leaves are simple, entire & alternate with large stipules.  Two+ pairs of veins arise close to the base.  The attractive, scented Flowers lack petals.  Yellow males are in catkin-like spikes.  The reddish females have a superior ovary and are in racemes.  The Fruit is a colourful, fleshy, edible drupe with a single flat seed.

Description

Antidesma venosum

Previous Names: Antidesma bifrons, Antidesma biovinianum.

SA Tree No. 318.

Common names:  (Afr) Tosselbessie, Voëlsitboom.  (Eng) Tassel-berry.  (isiXhosa) Umtyongi.  (isiZulu) Isibangamlotha (makes ash), Isangowane, Isiqutwane, Umhlabahlungulu, Umhlalanyoni, Umnangazi.  (Northern Sotho) Modulane.  (Setswana) Kgôbê-tsabadisana, Moingwe, Segagama.  (siSwati) Inhlalamahubulu (raven’s perch), Umhlalanyoni, Umhlala-mahuhulu, Umhlongi.  (Tshivenda) Mufhala-khwali, Mupala-khwali.  (Xitsonga) Anshongi, Anwangati, Mpfalambati, Phalakhwari.

Family: Phyllanthaceae. In this diverse family, Latex as well as Spines are usually absent.  This is diagnostic and excludes them from Euphorbiaceae.  There are about 50+ genera and 2 000 species in this family.  They are most numerous in the tropics and most members are trees.  Leaves are usually simple, alternate and petiolate.  Leaf margins are usually entire, and leaves are present in most species.  The actinomorphic Flowers are usually unisexual and are monoecious or dioecious.  The superior Ovary has 2 ovules in each locule.  The Fruit is a berry, drupe or schizocarp.  Local genera containing trees on this website include Antidesma, Bridelia, Cleistanthus and Heywoodia.

Name derivation:   Antidesma – against (snake) poison or it may refer to the banded bark used for rope.  venosum – with noticeable (leaf) vein s.  Globally there are 100 species in Antidesma and in southern Africa, this genus has 2 species.

Conservation Status: L C. (least concern).  Assessed: 2005 (R.H. Archer and J.E. Victor).

Tree

This small, usually graceful Tree is 4-9m high or it may remain a shrub.  In the Ngoye Forest Preserve in KwaZulu-Natal (14km inland from Mtunzini), the tree reaches 15m high.  The Crown may be rounded and spreading or slender.  The Bark (photo 777) is greyish brown, smooth or rough and flaky.  The Stem (main axis of the plant) is usually twisted, and branches occur low-down.  Twigs (1-year-old current branch segments – photo 83) are covered with red hairs and have pale grey Lenticels (usually raised corky oval or elongated area on the plant that allows the uncontrolled interchange of gases with the environment).

Leaves

Leaves are oblong, elliptic, lanceolate or ovate, alternate (photo 779) and are simple (have a single blade which may have incisions that are not deep enough to divide the leaf into leaflets).  This semi-deciduous plant has leaves that are glandless and often large – up to 15 x 10cm.  They turn yellowish before falling.  The leathery Blade is shiny bright green above and here the Veins are sunken.  It is paler below and up to 7 pairs of prominent hairy side veins are visible.  The hairy veins branch and loop together before reaching the Margin.  This is visible when the translucent leaf is examined against a strong light (photo 84).  Margins are entire (with a continuous margin, not in any way indented – photo 779).  The Apex may be rounded, or it may taper – in which case a drip tip may be present.  The Base is rounded to cordate (heart shaped).  Apart from the midrib (the main rib of a leaf or leaf-like part, a continuation of the petiole), at least 2 other pairs of veins start near the leaf base (photo 130).  The short – up to 1cm long Petiole (leaf stalk) is swollen, hairy (photo 130) and grooved on top.  Hairy Stipules (basal appendage of the petiole) are large, conspicuous, have tapering tips and are nearly persistent.

Flowers

The many attractive, unpleasantly or honey scented Flowers develop at the ends of twigs (1-year-old current branch segments), and are dioecious (unisexual floral structures with male and female parts on separate plants).  The Calyx is small, membranous and imbricate (having regularly arranged, overlapping edges).  Petals are absent.  The small, pale yellow Male Flowers are in drooping, long, thin catkin like Spikes (simple indeterminate inflorescence with sessile flowers on a single unbranched axis opening in succession towards the apex) that are up to 8cm long.  Here Stamens are present but the rudimentary Ovary lacks a Pistil.  The reddish Female Flowers are in thin, shorter Racemes (a simple elongated inflorescence with stalked flowers that open in succession towards the apex) and are less fluffy.  The Disc (a more or less fleshy or elevated development of the receptacle) is annular (in a ring or arranged in a circle) surrounding the base of the ovary.  The superior Ovary usually has a single locule with 2 ovules.  The Styles are usually bilobed.  Insects may parasitize the flowers causing them to become distorted and tangled with sterile growth.  (About Oct-Jan).

Fruit

Each relatively long Fruit is up to 8 x 5mm and develops in a pendulous Spike.  The fleshy fruit is an almost spherical Berry (pulpy, indehiscent fruit like a grape or tomato) that changes from white to red and finally to purplish black when mature and, at the apex, the remains of the style are still visible.  All the different aged fruits have different attractive colours that are often simultaneously visible.  This varied aging process aids effective dispersal.  By abortion, each fruit contains only a single Seed.  Seeds are flat with broad, flat cotyledons (seed leaf; primary leaf or leaves in the embryo).  The albumen (starchy or other nutritive material surrounding the embryo) is fleshy.  (About Jan-May but may be before or after).

Distribution & Ecology

These plants can be Found at medium to low altitude.  Further north, where it is warmer, the frost sensitive plants develop at higher altitudes and further from the sea – up to an altitude of 1 800m.  These plants occur mainly in the open in Eastern Cape near Port St Johns, KwaZulu-Natal – especially near the coast, Limpopo, Northern Province, Mpumalanga e.g., near Punda Maria and the Lebombo mountains (including Swaziland), widespread in Mozambique, Botswana, northern Namibia and northwards to Sudan.  Trees grow close to rivers, in forest margins, sand forests, mixed deciduous woodland and open savannah.  Game, including Kudu and impala browse the Leaves.  Monkeys, baboons and birds, including bulbuls, mousebirds, barbets, white-eyes and thrushes, consume the fruit.

Ethnobotany

Apart from the possible smell of the flowers, this tree would be worth planting.  The usually small tree is slow growing and propagation by seeds is possible.  Remove the flesh surrounding the seeds before planting.  This tree is frost sensitive.  The sweet Fruit is edible and has a sweet flavour similar to mulberry – opinions differ on the taste and is consumed by people, monkeys and baboons.  The fruit can produce a reddish-purple dye.  The small, hard, dense, fine Wood has a yellow sapwood and a dark heartwood.  It is useful for hut building and fuel.  The Roots may be toxic.  Local medicine makes use of bark, roots and leaves.  This slow growing plant is a good garden tree but both male and female plants are required to produce the attractive fruit.  To achieve this, plant cuttings from the separate male and female plants.

References

Archer, R.H. & Victor, J.E. 2005. Antidesma venosum E.Mey. ex Tul. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version 2020.1. Accessed on 2022/12/11.

Boon, R. 2010. Pooley’s Trees of eastern South Africa. Flora and Fauna Publications Trust, Durban.

Burrows, J.E., Burrows, S.M., Lotter, M.C. & Schmidt, E. 2018. Trees and Shrubs Mozambique.  Publishing Print Matters (Pty) Ltd.  Noordhoek, Cape Town.

Coates Palgrave, M. 2002. Keith Coates Palgrave Trees of Southern Africa, edn 3. Struik, Cape Town.

Ginn, P.J. McIlleron, W.G. Milstein, S. 1989. The Complete Book of Southern African Birds. Struik Publishers (PTY) LTD. Third impression 1991.

Lawrence, G. H. M, 1951. Taxonomy of Vascular Plants. The Macmillan Company, New York. Tenth Printing 1965.

Palmer, E. & Pitman, N. 1972. Trees of southern Africa. Balkema, Amsterdam, Cape Town.

Schmidt, S. Lotter, M. & McCleland, W. 2002. Trees and Shrubs of Mpumalanga and the Kruger National Park. Jacana, Johannesburg.

van Wyk, B. & van Wyk, P. 1997 Field guide to Trees of Southern Africa. Struik, Cape Town.

 

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/antidesmavenosum.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidesma

http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=134560

http://www.floratrust.co.za/blog/Antidesma-venosum-Tassel-berry/

https://www.theplantlibrary.co.za/Plants/Antidesma-venosum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthaceae