General Info

This deciduous Tree is up to 12m high with a rounded crown and a trunk up to 36cm wide.  The small simple, Leaves are thin & side veins reach margins.  Each bisexual, regular, 5-merous Flowers rest on a long pedicel, have yellowish-green sepals, short petals & 5 stamens.  The single, superior ovary is 2-locular and each locule has 1 ovule.  Fruit is a small, smooth, indehiscent and edible drupe with leathery seeds.

Description

Berchemia zeyheri

Previous Names: Phyllogeiton zeyheri, Rhamnus zeyheri.

SA Tree No. 450.

Common names: (Afr) Rooihout, Rooi-ivoor.  (Eng) Pink Ivory, Purple Ivory, Red Ivory.  (IsiNdebele) Mnaga, Umcaga, Umnyii.  (isiXhosa) Umini.  (isiZulu) Umgologolo, Umncaka, Umneyi, Umnini.  (Northern Sotho) Monee.  (Setswana) Moye.  (siSwati) umNeyi, Sineyi.  (Tshivenda) Muhukhuma, Muniaiane, Muniane, Munia-niane.  (Xitsonga) Xiniyani, Nyilyani, Nyiyani, Umnini.

Family: Rhamnaceae. (Buckthorn Family).  This family mainly contains trees and shrubs.  It has about 58 genera and 900 species.  In South Africa, there are 9 genera and 203 species.  Trees on this website include Berchemia, Noltea, Rhamnus and Ziziphus.  Leaves are simple and usually alternate, and stipules are present – if only for a short time.  Flowers are actinomorphic (regular and symmetric) and a prominent hypanthium (the cup-like receptacle usually derived from the fusion of floral envelopes and androecium, and on which are seemly borne calyx, corolla and stamens) is present.  Sepals are well developed and Petals are free and in 4’s or 5’s.  The Calyx is tubular, and sepals do not overlap.  The free petals arise from the calyx tube or from the outer margin of the disc.  The 4-5 Stamens arise with, and opposite the petals.  Anthers have up to 2 pollen sacs and pollen is released through longitudinal slits.  The Ovary is usually superior and has 2-5 chambers.  Fruit is a drupe, which is partly enclosed by a persistent Calyx.  Most members have adapted to dry climates.

Name derivation: Berchemia named after M Berchem, a French botanist in the 17th century.  zeyhrai named after Carl L. P. Zeyher: noted German botanist for his fundamental work on Flora Capensis (a systematic description of the Plants of the Cape colony and neighbouring territories).  There are 2 species of the genus Berchemia in southern Africa.  The other is Berchemia discolor.

Conservation: National Status: L C. (Least Concern).  Assessed: 2005 (W. Foden and L. Potter).  The good wood quality may pose a problem in the future due to illegal harvesting.

Tree

This unarmed Tree may be small and bushy but may reach 12-15m high (photo 933).  The Trunk is straight with a diameter up to 36cm, ending in a rounded, leafy crown.  Young twigs (1-year-old current branch segments) may be a reddish purple.  The Bark is initially smooth and grey.  Older trees have bark that is darker and cracked into longitudinally running segments, which may appear rectangular.  (Photos 931 & 635).

Leaves

This usually deciduous tree, has delicate, attractive, smooth Leaves (photo 636) that are opposite or nearly so (photo 943 – under Flowers).  Leaves are simple (have a single blade, which may have incisions that are not deep enough to divide the blade into leaflets) and are similar to those of Berchemia discolor but much smaller.  The Margin is often entire (with a continuous margin, not in any way indented) but may appear to be scalloped between the side veins that go directly to the margin.  In winter, the leaves may turn yellow or a clear golden colour before falling.  They are elliptic to ovate and up to 4 x 3,5cm.  The shiny Blade is usually hairless and young leaves are thin and initially bright green, maturing to dark green, blue-green or grey green above and slightly lighter below (photo 943).  Lateral veins form a herringbone pattern (photo 943) and reach the leaf margin.  The veins protrude below and are thus more visible.  The Apex is round or bluntly pointed and may be notched.  The Base may be reddish and is round, narrowed or cordate (heart-shaped).  The Petiole (leaf stalk) is short – up to 4mm long, may be reddish purple, and is slightly twisted.  The upper surface of the petiole is channeled (photo 943).

Flowers

The bisexual, yellowish green, 5-merous Flowers are small (up to 16mm long and 4mm wide).  They occur in small axillary clusters and supported by long, thin Pedicles (individual flower stalks) that are usually up to 1,8cm long (photo 934).  Flowers are actinomorphic (Regular, symmetrical.  Flowers are vertically divisible into similar halves by more than one plane passing through the axis).  Each flower has 5 ovate, non-overlapping Sepals with a keel on the inner face (photo 939).  Spatulate (shaped like a spatula with a broad rounded end) Petals are shorter than the sepals.  The Disc (more or less fleshy or elevated development of the receptacle) is swollen (photo 937).  The 5 Stamens are as long as the sepals and arise between the sepals and are inserted outside the disc (photo 937).  The Anthers open through longitudinal slits.  Flowers have a single Pistil (a unit of the Gynoecium, the female element of the flower, composed of the ovary, style and stigma) containing a superior (said of an ovary that is free from the calyx or perianth) 2-locular Ovary that is immersed in the disc.  A solitary basal Ovule is contained in each locule.  The conical Style is thick and 2-lobed.  The Stigma is gland bearing (photo 937).  (Aug-Jan).

Fruit

The small (up to 1,4 x 0,5cm), smooth, fleshy and oval, ovate (egg shaped) or ellipsoidal Fruit is attached to the stem by the older, long thin Pedicel (flower stalk).  The fruit is a yellowish to brownish red Drupe (a fleshy, 1-seeded indehiscent fruit with the seed enclosed in a stony endocarp (fruit wall), like a very small peach pip.  A persistent Style may be visible at the apex.  The initially green fruit turns yellow or red when mature.  (Dec-May).

Distribution & Ecology

The Tree is Endemic in southern Africa.  (Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location).  Galls may develop on branches.  It is located at low to medium altitudes in the bushveld (a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of southern Africa), rocky hillsides, stony ridges, bushy stream banks, dry forests and near termite mounds.  It is drought resistant but sensitive to frost.  Trees are common in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga e.g., near Middelburg, Gauteng e.g., Hartbeespoort Dam – close to Pretoria, Limpopo, North West, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and southern Mozambique.  The Flowers attract bees and other insects.  Leaves are heavily grazed by herbivores.  Baboons, monkeys and bushbabies eat the Fruit.  Birds including Loeries (Turacos), Doves, bulbuls, starlings and Green Pigeons, and other animals also eat the fruit.  Impala and Nyala eat both the fruit and leaves.  Porcupines eat the Bark.

Ethnobotany

The sweet, sticky Fruit is edible and good tasting.  It is much sought after and can be dried and stored (becoming a sugary mass) for future use.  Sun dried fruits are stamped together and mixed with porridge. Local people sell the fruit.  The sought after, lovely bright red or pink, very hard, dense Wood has a fine texture turns and polishes well (photo 179).  Wood is used for the manufacture of quality furniture, ornaments, fence poles, knife handles, knobkerries and bows.  Sapwood is a pale cream colour and heartwood is an attractive pinkish red.  The wood is resistant to insect attack but difficult to plane and takes a long time to air-dry.  At one time only chiefs were allowed to carry a knobkerrie made from this tree.  A purplish dye is extractable from the Bark.  Propagation is easily carried out using cleaned seed, but the plant is slightly frost sensitive.  This is a good bird, bee and butterfly tree.  Local medicine makes use of tree parts.

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. Berchemia zeyheri (Sond.) Grubov. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version 2020.1. Accessed on 2022/12/23.

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/berchemzey.htm

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

http://pza.sanbi.org/berchemia-zeyheri

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