General Info – summary

This variable evergreen Tree has smoothish bark, may reach 30m high.  Alternate simple Leaves – up to 8 x 4cm have entire margins.  Small, whitish, regular, scented & 5-merous Flowers develop in terminal clusters in cymose panicles.  Stamens 5.  Single 1-locular pistil has a superior ovary from which a small terete style emerges.  The small Fruit is a drupe with a persistent style on one side.  Seeds may have a coloured aril.

Description

Apodytes dimidiate subsp. dimidiata

Previous Names: Apodytes acutifolia, Apodytes emirnensis, Apodytes inversa.

SA Tree No. 422.

Common Names:  (Afr) Witpeer, Witpeerhout.  (Eng) Bird’s-eye Tree, White Pear.  (isiXhosa) Umdakane, Umkhwenkwe.  (isiZulu) Umdakane.  (Northern Sotho) Kgalagangwê, Mmetla-kgamelo, Sephopha-madi.  (siSwati) umDzakane.  (Tshivenda) Tshiphopha-madi.

Family: Metteniusaceae. (Previous family Icacinaceae)  This family of flowering plants exists mainly in the tropics.  These plants may be lianas, shrubs or trees.  This family has recently increased the numbers from 1 to about 10 genera and about 50 species.  Flowers are fragrant.  Exserted Stamens are connected to the petals.  The free 1,5cm long Filaments are curled backwards.  Anthers are moniliform (resembling a string of beads).  Ovaries contain 1 ovule and the Style is 2cm long.

Name derivation: Apodytes – Greek: to strip: the calyx is too small to cover the corolla petals.  dimidiate – divided into 2: referring to the half-coloured fruit.  The 8 species of evergreen trees in the genus Apodytes are found in NE Australia, Asia, New Caledonia (in the SW Pacific Ocean) and Africa.

Conservation: National Status: L C. (Least Concern).  Assessed: 2005 (W. Foden and L. Potter).

Tree

This medium sized bushy Tree may reach 20m high – usually 4-5m.  In the forests, the trunk is usually irregularly fluted and seldom round (photos 760 & 230).  It may also be a twisted shrub no more than 1m high.  Smaller isolated trees are graceful and have a compact crown (photo 426).  The initially smooth Bark (photos 229 & 757) is white, pale grey or pale green, and may become roughish and darker with age.  It may peel off in patches.  Different coloured Lichen (composite organism arising from a mutualistic relationship between fungi or cyanobacteria and algae species may be present – photo 757).  Young stems may be purplish red with brown hairs.  Protruding Lenticels (usually raised corky oval or elongated areas on the plant that allows the uncontrolled interchange of gases with the environment – photo 783).

Leaves

On this evergreen tree (photo 671), the often shiny, alternate and slightly leathery Leaves are simple (have a single blade which may have incisions that are not deep enough to divide the blade into leaflets – photo 694).  The spirally arranged, soft leaves are dark green above and lighter below (photo 780).  They are occasionally hairy among the basal portion of the lower side midrib.   Leaves are ovate to obovate to elliptic and up to 8 x 4cm (photo 780).  The Apex is narrow to broadly tapering and possibly notched.  The Base is broadly tapering to rounded and may be pink.  The Midrib is yellowish, visible on both sides and protrudes below.  It may be flushed with pink.  The rolled under Margin is entire (with a continuous margin, not in any way indented) and may be wavy (photo 694).  Observing the leaves against a strong light is the best way to study the veins (photo 424).  Here the lateral veins arch and join other veins before reaching the margin.  The Petiole (leaf stalk) is up to 2cm long, grooved above (photo 680) and may be reddish.  If the leaves are bent and slowly twisted apart, the fine thread connecting to the midrib will become visible.  This helps to confirm ID.  Pressed leaves tend to dry black.

Flowers

The many, small, cream or white Flowers are about 5mm in diameter and heavily scented in the early morning.  They may grow in profusion and may be slightly hairy.  Flowers are located in terminal clusters that are cymose (a broad, more or less flat-topped, determinate flower cluster, with central flowers opening first) panicles (indeterminate, branched inflorescence with stalked flowers).  Flowers develop in leaf axils on branched stalks (photo 348).  They stand out above the leaves and are bisexual and actinomorphic (Regular, symmetrical.  Flowers are vertically divisible into similar halves by more than 1 plane passing through the axis).  The small saucer-shaped Calyx is slightly 5-toothed (photo 350).  The Corolla has 5 Petals that are free and valvate (meeting at the edge without overlapping – photo 349).  The 5 Stamens alternate with petals and are joined to them (photo 125).  Each Anther is 2-thecous (has 2 pollen sacs).  These open and dehisce through longitudinal slits.  There is a single Pistil (a unit of the Gynoecium, the female element of the flower, composed of the Ovary, Style and Stigma) and the superior Ovary has 1 locule with 2 pendulous ovules.  There is a single, small Style which is terete (circular in cross-section), ending in a small Stigma (photo 125).  Pollinators include bees.  (Sep-Apr).

Fruit

The Fruit is green when young and turns a distinctive black or red when mature.  It is a berry-like drupe (or stone fruit – a fleshy, indehiscent fruit with the seed enclosed in a stony endocarp.  Example: a peach).  When mature, the Seeds may be partly covered by a distinctive orange to scarlet to black lateral Aril (an appendage or outer covering of a seed and may appear as a pulpy covering) giving the fruit a reniform (kidney) shape.  The aril becomes grey with age.  The fruit is small and round with a persistent, thin Style that remains on one side of the base.  When in full fruit, the tree turns a shiny scarlet and black.  Parasites may disfigure the fruit.  Seeds have a fleshy endosperm (the starch and oil-containing tissue of many seeds; often referred to as the albumen).  (Dec-Jun).

Distribution & Ecology

These trees not endemic in South Africa.  They are located from sea level to medium altitudes in evergreen forests (like Knysna, George and Tsitsikamma), bushveld, rocky outcrops, mountain slopes and grassland.  Outside the forests, it is a graceful smallish tree with a compact crown.  In less favourable conditions like sandy dunes and coastal bush, it may be a small, twisted shrub up to 1m high.  Severe frost and drought may limit plant growth.  Trees are located in the Western Cape – including Table Mountain, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo and North West.  Beyond South Africa they occur in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and northwards into tropical Africa – as far as Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria.  Leaves are used to kill snails.  Black rhino browse both the Bark and Leaves.  In the early morning, when the scent is high, bees visit the Flowers and aid in pollination.   Birds such as sparrows, starlings, pigeons, bulbuls and white-eyes consume the Fruit.

Ethnobotany

The strong, very hard, heavy, elastic, and fine textured Wood is pale pinkish brown.  It is easily worked and takes a good polish.  Wood is used for building, furniture, fuel and for construction of fish kraals and agricultural implements.  In the past, it was used for wagon construction.  The tree grows from Seeds (germination is slow).  These plants grow well in areas with ample water supply.  In cold areas, it can be grown as an attractive hedge.  Leaves may be used to kill snails.  The Roots are not invasive.  The pink young stems and petioles are distinctive.  This evergreen Tree is suitable for a small garden and provides all year-round shade.  The root bark and leaves are used in local medicine.  This is a protected tree in South Africa.

References

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.

Foden, W. & Potter, L. 2005. Apodytes dimidiata E.Mey. ex Arn. subsp. dimidiata. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2024/08/13.

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/apodytesdim.htm

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

http://posa.sanbi.org/flora/browse.php?src=SP

http://www.kew.org/science/tropamerica/neotropikey/families/Metteniusaceae.htm.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apodytes