General Info – summary

This Tree with a trunk width up 30+cm wide & 20m high has strong, usually unevenly forked spines.  Bark is smoothish.  The deciduous compound Leaves have 2 opposite leaflets with off-centre midribs and asymmetric bases.  The small, greenish-yellow, bisexual, regular, scented and 5-merous Flowers are in axillary umbels.  Ten anthers surround the superior ovary.  The 5cm long Fruit is a single seeded drupe.

This Tree with a trunk width up 30cm wide & 20m high has strong, usually unevenly forked spines.  Bark is smoothish.  The deciduous compound Leaves have 2 opposite leaflets with off-centre midribs and asymmetric bases.  The small, greenish-yellow, bisexual, regular, scented and 5-merous Flowers are in axillary umbels.  Ten anthers surround the superior ovary.  The 5cm long Fruit is a single seeded drupe.

Description

Balanites maughamii subsp. maughamii.

Previous Names: Balanites dawei.

SA Tree No. 251.

Common names: (Afr) Fakkelhout, Fakkelsaadboom, Groendoring, Lemoendoring, Toortshout.  (Eng) Green Thorn, Torch Wood, Torch-fruit Tree, Y-thorned Torchwood.  (siSwati) Liphambo, Umnunu.  (isiZulu) Iphamba, Iphamu, Iphambo, Ipamu, Gobandlovu, M’nula, Mudulu, ugobandlovu, Umnulu.  (Xitsonga) Nnulu.

Family Zygophyllaceae. This family of flowering plants has about 22+ genera and 280+ species.  There are about 8 genera and 47 species in southern Africa. These may be trees, herbs or shrubs that usually occur in dry areas.  These includes the genus Balanites.  The simple Leaves may be bifoliate and are usually opposite or nearly so and frequently have stipules and spines.  Flowers have oil or nectar glands that encourage pollination by bees.  The Ovary is superior, and the style and stigma are usually simple.  The Fruit is a capsule or berry.  Most species grow in saline or desert environments and are mainly shrubs or small trees.

Name derivation: Balanites from Greek for acorn-shaped – referring to the fruit.  maughamii – named after Reginald Charles Fulke Maugham.  He was the British Council to Lourenco Marques – now Maputo.  He first collected the plant in southern Mozambique and sent it to Kew in 1911.  He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.  There are 4 species of the genus Balaniites in southern Africa – including one in northern Namibia, along the Caprivi Strip.

Conservation: National Status: L C (least Concern) but plant numbers are decreasing due to poor tree recovery after bark harvesting.  Assessment: 2016 (V.L. Williams, D. Raimondo, N.R. Crouch, A.B. Cunningham, C.R. Scott-Shaw, M. Lötter and A.M. Ngwenya).

Tree

The spreading but sparse Crown may reach up to 20m high.  The plants may develop in small colonies.  The older Trunk is usually buttressed and may be deeply fluted (photo 562).  This helps with tree ID.  The trunk is up to 30cm wide.  The light grey to yellowish brown Bark is relatively smooth.  There are 2 different branch types.  Barren branches lack fruit and have strong robust, sharp and usually unequally forked spines that are up to 5cm long.  The second branch type is Fruit bearing and here the spines, if present, are small.  Young branches have short hairs that drop, and the stem becomes smooth as it matures.  Grey-green hairs may initially cover young branches, and these branches remain green for some time (photo 562).  Branches start with a zigzag pattern.  These usually unevenly forked spines (photo 564 – under Leaves) remain for a long time.  In mature trees, stable Branches develop from just under 2m above the ground.

Leaves

This usually deciduous tree has alternate compound Leaves that are hairy when young.  Each leaf contains two pairs of oppositely arranged Leaflets (a leaf-like part of a compound leaf or secondary leaf – photo 564) that lack stipules (basal appendages of the petiole).  These leaflets are grey or olive-green and usually up to 8 x 6,5cm and each leaflet is ovate to almost round (photo 564).  Leaflets may be more or less velvety (having a smooth, soft appearance, feel, or taste) and become smooth with age.  The leaflet Apex may be pointed or rounded (especially on flowering branches).  The asymmetric (not equal to the opposite side) leaflet Bases are broadly tapering and have an off-centre Midrib.  The leathery Blade is entire (with a continuous margin, not in any way indented) and may be wavy (photo 564).  Leaflets are initially hairy, but the upper surface becomes hairless and smoother with time.  The hairy and velvety Petiole (leaf stalk) is up to 4cm long.  The two short Petiolules (leaflet stalks) are each up to 1,3mm long.

Flowers

The scented, bisexual, greenish yellow and inconspicuous Flowers are up to 2cm wide and actinomorphic (Regular, symmetrical.  Flowers are vertically divisible into similar halves by more than 1 plane passing through the axis).  Each flower rests on a Pedicel (stalk of a single flower).  Flowers are located in an axillary (in the axil:  growing between stem and leaf) umbels-like (inflorescences in which flower stalks arise from a common point) Cymes (a broad, more or less flat-topped, determinate flower cluster, with central flowers opening first).  The Calyx has 5 free, persistent Sepals – the outer surface of which is villous (provided with long and soft, not matted hairs).  The Corolla has 5 greenish-yellow Petals which are slightly fleshy and imbricate (having regularly arranged, overlapping edges, as roof tiles).  They are externally densely hairy and smooth within.  A thick Disc (a more or less fleshy or elevated development of the receptacle) is present.  The 10 Stamens have distinctive protruding free Filaments that are inserted at the base of the disc.  The Anthers have 2 pollen sacs which open 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) containing a superior, 5 chambered, globose (spherical or nearly so) Ovary.  This ovary is hairy and partly imbedded in the disc.  Each locule (cavity within an organ) contains a single ovule.  The Style is short and the Stigma is simple.  (Jul-Oct).

Fruit

The Fruit is an oval to barrel shaped Drupe (a fleshy, 1-seeded by abortion, indehiscent fruit with the seed enclosed in a stony endocarp; stone fruit – like a peach).  This drupe is yellowish when ripe and usually has 5 grooves on the upper half.  Each fruit is up to 6 x 3cm and has a shell, which is brownish yellow and surrounded by a thin, fleshy layer.  The drupe falls when ripe.  The fruit is edible but not sought after.  Each Seed has 2 oily Cotyledons (seed leaves; primary leaves in the embryo) and lacks endosperm (the starch and oil-containing tissue of many seeds; often referred to as the albumen).  Planted trees may fruit in about 4 years.  (Sep-May).

Distribution & Ecology

These Trees are often located in small colonies.  They occur in dry forest, open woodland, sand forests and sandstone outcrops.  They also occur near water sources like riverbanks and around pans.   Trees are found in Northern KwaZulu-Natal e.g. Mkuze Game Reserve, Mpumalanga e.g. Skukuza in KNP and Limpopo.  They also occur in Swaziland, Zimbabwe and northwards through Mozambique (mainly central and south), Malawi and Tanzania.  The Seeds yield an excellent quality, oil that is colourless and tasteless.  Elephants browse the Branch tips.  Porcupines may tear and scar the Bark.  Many mammals including baboons, monkeys, warthogs, bushpigs and antelope consume the fallen Fruit.  (Sep-May).

Ethnobotany

Fruits placed in water can kill some parasites, bilharzia snails, fish and tadpoles.  Fruits have kernels (a softer, often edible part of a nut contained within its shell) containing a fine quality oil.  This oil burns with a very bright flame without odour, is said to equal olive oil and has good lubricative qualities.  This good quality oil is edible, colourless and slightly bitter.  Burning kernels are used as torches – hence the common name torchwood.  The Stem of the tree contains steroidal saponins (distinctive glycosides with foaming characteristics) with an antifeedant (chemical agent that causes a pest such as an insect, to stop eating).  The hard, dense and durable Wood is used to make sticks, stocks for guns, wooden bowls and handles for pangas (tools or weapons).  Heartwood and sapwood are indistinguishable.  The tree is easily grown from seeds – after the fleshy part has been removed.  Local medicine makes use of Plant extracts.  This tree has been cultivated in Egypt for over 4 000 years.  For best results, plant seeds where you want the tree to grow.  Planted trees may take up to 4 years to produce the edible Fruit.  Some people eat the fleshy part of the fruit.  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.

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.

SANBI. 2024. Balanites maughamii Sprague subsp. maughamii. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2024/11/18.

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

http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/199900551.html

http://www.ispotnature.org/species-dictionaries/sanbi/Balanites%20maughamii%20subsp.%20maughamii

http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=132970

https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Balanites_maughamii

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

http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/themes/bst/keys/e-Key-20160604/Families/F_Kirkiaceae.html

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antifeedant.