Noltea africana

General Info – Summary

This glabrous, small, evergreen shrub or small, unarmed Tree is usually up to 4m high.  It has a slender brown trunk + light grey bark and purple-red branches.  Leathery, discolorous and alternate Leaves are simple.  Margin is irregularly serrated.  Small, white, bisexual, 5-merous, regular Flowers are in panicles.  The style has 3 short lobes.  Fruit is a small woody 3-lobed dehiscent capsule with 3 light brown seeds.

Previous Names: Ceonothus Africana.

SA Tree No. 453.

Common names: (Afr) Seepblinkblaar, Seepbos.  (Eng) Noltia, Soap Bush, Soap Dogwood, Soap Glossy-leaf, Soap Shiny-leaf.  (isiXhosa) Amaluleka, Iphalode, Umaluleka, Umglindi, Umkhuthuhla.  (isiZulu) Umaluleka.

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 to 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: Noltea Named after Ernst Ferdinand Nolte (1791-1875) professor of Botany at the University of Kiel.  africana – of Africa.  In southern Africa, Noltea africana is the only species.

Conservation: National Status: L C. (Least Concern).  Assessment: 2005 (J.E. Victor & A.E. van Wyk).  Population trend is stable but rare.

Tree

The plant is glabrous (hairless) and unarmed.  The Tree (photo 90) is usually up to 2-5m high but may reach 9m high with a slender trunk.  It may also be a shrub.  The Bark (photo 462) is light grey and smooth.  Branchlets are reddish to purple (photo 342) and tend to weep slightly.  Old leaf base remains are visible on the young stem (photo 462).  Visible lenticels (usually raised corky elongated areas on the plant that allows the uncontrolled interchange of gases with the environment) are present (photo 798).

Leaves

On this evergreen tree, the shiny alternate Leaves (photo 459) are simple (have a single blade which may have incisions that are not deep enough to divide the blade into leaflets).  They are oblong-lanceolate or elliptic and are up to 7 x 1,8cm (photo 950).  Leaves are leathery and discolorous (having upper and lower surfaces of leaves different colours).  They are glossy dark green above, and much paler green below (photo 950).  The Midrib is sunken above and yellowish, clearly visible and protrudes below.  In this photo the side veins are easily seen.  The Apex is narrowly abruptly rounded or sharp tipped or may be indented (photo 950).  The Base tapers.  The Margin is irregularly serrated (photo 459).  The Petiole (leaf stalk) is short and reddish (photo 950).  Stipules (basal appendages of the petiole) are small, slightly green and gland-like on the smooth reddish shoots (photo 186).

Flowers

The reddish/purple short-lived buds (photo 343) have flowers that are about 3mm in diameter, and open into small white, 5-merous Flowers (photo 348).  These flowers are bisexual and actinomorphic (Regular, symmetrical.  Here the flowers are vertically divisible into similar halves by more than 1 plane passing through the axis).  The flowers occur in leaf axils or terminally in Panicles (indeterminate, branched inflorescence with stalked flowers – photo 343).  The 5-lobed Calyx tube is widely bell-shaped.  The ovate lobes are about the same size as the calyx tube.  The Corolla has 5 Petals that are shorter than calyx.  These hood-like petals (photo 348) embrace the 5 Stamens.  The Anthers (Dark & V-shaped in photo 348) have 2 pollen sacs and pollen is released through longitudinal slits.  These stamens do not protrude beyond the corolla (photo 348).  There is a single Pistil (a unit of the Gynoecium, the female element of the flower, composed of the Ovary, Style and Stigma).  Here the half-inferior Ovary is partially attached to the calyx and has 3 locules (compartments).  Each of the locules contains a single ovule.  The Style has 3 short lobes.  (Aug-Sep +).

Fruit

The initially green Fruit (photo 78) is an almost spherical, 3-celled Capsule (a dry fruit resulting from the maturing of a compound ovary that usually opens at maturity by one or more lines of dehiscence).  The persistent Calyx forms a saucer shape reaching nearly one-third along the young fruit capsule (photo 78).  This pea-sized, 3-valved capsule becomes blackish and up to 1cm in diameter (photo 460).  Each of the 3 woody valve opens backwards for seeds dispersal (photo 561).  The interior of the valves is a light colour and the exterior becomes dark brown (photo 561).  Seeds are light to dark brown (photo 127).  (Sep-Nov).

Distribution & Ecology

This plant is Endemic in South Africa.  (Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location).  This frost-resistant plant is Found in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape and northwards up to KwaZulu-Natal.  It is common in sand on coastal forests, forest edges and riparian (relating to wetlands adjacent to rivers and streams) habitats.  It is also common in vegetation dominated by shrubs.  In forests, it may be present in groves.  It occurs from sea level to an altitude of 1 500m.  It is very hardy and grows in sun or partial shade.  Flowers attract insects including butterflies and bees.

Ethnobotany

When crushed Leaves and Twigs are and rubbed in water, a soapy Lather is generated.  This lather is used for washing – including clothes.   This most impressive plant is suitable for small gardens.  Planted Seeds are fast growing and can be aided by a mixture of river sand and clay.  Once growing it may be better to keep it on a single stem.  The non-invasive root system enables planting seeds close to walls, buildings etc.

References

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

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.

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

von Staden, L. & van Wyk, A.E. 2018. Noltea africana (L.) Endl. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version 2020.1. Accessed on 2023/09/14.

 

http://witbos.co.za/plant.aspx?plant=noltea-africana

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

http://growwild.co.za/trees/noltea-africana

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

Nenungwi Lufuno, Free State National Botanical Garden, and Alice Notten. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. March 2016.