Pavetta lanceolata – updating web now!

General Info – Summary

This evergreen plant is a shrub or a Tree up to 6m high with squarish young branches.  Decussate, elliptic, edible Leaves are simple, entire and domatia may be present.  Bisexual tubular white Flowers are regular and 4-merous.  The corolla tube and the exserted style is long and distinctive.  Linear anthers envelop the outer bases of the petal lobes.  Pea-sized Fruit is usually a single seeded drupe turning black when mature.

Description

Previous Names: Ixora lanceolate, Pavetta alexandrae, Pavetta inandensis, Pavetta opaca, Pavetta tristis.

SA Tree No. 718.1.

Common names:  (Afr) Kermisboom, Treurbruidsbos.  (Eng) Christmas Bush, Christmas Tree, Weeping Brides-bush.  (isiXhosa) Tshituku, Umdlesa, Umhleza, Umponyane.  (isiZulu) Igololembuzi, Sunumbuzi, Umdleza, Umhleza, Umsunu wembuzi.  (Tshivenda) Mufhanza, Tshituku.

Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee/Gardenia family).  This family of dicotyledonous plants has in excess of 600 genera and about 13 000 species and members include trees, shrubs and herbs.  The plants are terrestrial and predominantly woody and sometimes Scandent (climbing without the aid of tendrils).  Local genera with trees on this website include Afrocanthium, Canthium, Coddia, Gardenia, Pavetta, Rothmannia and Vangueria.  Leaves are simple, opposite or whorled and have interpetiolar stipules.  The 4 or 5 merous, usually regular Flowers are bisexual or unisexual.  The Calyx has Sepals that are at least partly united.  In the Corolla, the Petals are joined – at least at the base.  Stamens are usually as many as corolla lobes and alternating with them.  The Ovary is inferior.  Fruit is a drupe, berry or capsule.

Name derivation: Pavetta – either after Pavetta indica in India or a name of the genus in Sri Lanka.  lanceolate: refers to the lance shaped leaves which are narrow and taper at both ends.  There are about 21 species of the genus Pavetta in South Africa and all are restricted to summer rainfall areas.

Conservation: National Status: L C. (Least Concern).  Assessment: 2005/06/30. (W. Foden and L. Potter).

Tree

This plant may develop as a shrub (photo 143) or a medium sized tree with a crown of glossy-green leaves.  It may also have a woody base but becomes shrubby further up.  When present, a single stemmed Trunk is much branched and up to 4m high and 23cm in diameter.  The light brown to grey Bark (photo 69) is initially smooth and ages to slightly longitudinally fissured (photo 887).  Branchlets may be almost square in cross-section.

Leaves

In the sun the foliage glossy green.  This evergreen tree has opposite Leaves that are decussate (arranged in pairs each at right angles to the next pair above or below i.e., rotated 90 degrees along the stem when viewed from above – photo 67).  The slender leaves are elliptic (photo 889) to lanceolate (tapering to a point) and may be thin to slightly leathery.  Individual leaves are glabrous (hairless) and simple (have a single blade which may have incisions that are not deep enough to divide the leaf into leaflets).  Leaves measure up to 10 x 2cm but are usually smaller (photo 889).  This photo shows the leaves are usually glossy dark green above and a duller green below.  The blade may also have tiny, circular scattered bacterial nodules that are round to elongate and visible on the leaf surfaces.  The 3-5 pairs of side veins are spread apart and clearly visible on both sides (photo 889) and here Domatia may be present.  Domatia are places constructed by plants for tiny arthropods.  In this plant they may be visible on the underside of leaves (photo 68) and are often present in the main leaf vein joints.  They are produced by plants to house tiny arthropods in a mutualistic relationship, where both the plants and the arthropods benefit.  The Apex and Base are both narrowly tapering.  Margins are entire (with a continuous margin, not in any way indented).  They may be rolled under and slightly wavy.  The relatively short Petiole (leaf stalk) is up to 6mm long (photo 889).  The cone-shaped Stipules (outgrowths usually on both sides of the base of a petiole photo 300).  Crushed Leaves have a spicy smell.

Flowers

The large, bright white flowers are tubular (photos 143 & 141) and each flower is subtended by a pair of Bracts (usually a much-reduced specialised leaf/leaves associated with flowers).  Terminal or axillary clusters of flowers develop towards the ends of relative branchlets (photo 143).  Flowers are bisexual and actinomorphic (Regular, symmetrical: vertically divisible into similar halves by more than 1 plane passing through the axis).  Each flower has its own dark green Pedicel (the single stalk that supports it – photo 141).  The short green persistent Calyx is the outer whorl of floral envelopes consisting of leaf-like structures called Sepals at the base of a flower – photo 141).  In this flower the sepal has  has 4 lobes that are either reduced to short sharp tips, or absent (photo 141).  Prior to opening, the Corolla Petals have distinctive green tipped lobes (photo 719).  The impressive petal tube is up to 1,9cm long and changes from a darkish green at the base to lighter colour close to the horizontally spreading petal lobes (photo 141).  In this photo this tube is longer than each open petal lobe).  The now essentially 4 white Petal Lobes (photo 711) are each up to 1cm long and initially move out from the corolla mouth at nearly 90 degrees before tilting downwards (photo 141 & 136).

The flower throat is not bearded (photo 136) but the 4 rather dirty looking grey Anthers (where the pollen is produced) are each about as long as a petal lobe.  Anthers arise in the corolla mouth (just visible in photo 711).  The Filaments (the slender stalks that supports each anther) are much shorter than the linear to oblong anthers (photo 136).  These anthers become twisted as they fold down between, and then around, the bases of the petal lobes (photo 141).

The Pistil is the female element of the flower containing the stigma style and ovary.  The inferior Ovary (one which is seemingly below the calyx) is 2-chambered with a solitary pendulous ovule (here female reproductive cells occur and eventually become seeds) in each locule (here the cavity within the ovary).  From the ovary extends a substantial Style (elongated part of the pistil situated between the ovary and the stigma) that is up to 2,5cm long (photo 141).  This ends in a hairy, relatively long, thickened, green-tipped Stigma (the part of the pistil that receives the pollen – photo 136).  In this photo the stigma splits into two just visible parts.  (Oct-Jan).

Fruit

The Fruit is a slightly fleshy, pea-sized Drupe (fleshy, 1-seeded indehiscent fruits with each seed enclosed in a stony endocarp; stone fruit like a peach) that occurs in dense clusters (photo 387).  The fruit is almost spherical and up to 7mm in diameter.  It is initially green, becomes black, and finally shrivels (photo 387).  In this photo, the remains of the persistent and truncate calyx may be visible at the end of a fruit.  Usually only one almost spherical Seed is produced in each fruit. (Feb-Jul).

Distribution & Ecology

These Plants tolerate some frost and are Endemic (restricted to a particular geographic location) in southern Africa.  They occur in sunny, forest margins (not common within darker forests) and in high summer rainfall areas, rocky hillsides, close to the coast as well as valley bushveld (a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of southern Africa).  Provincially they occur in Eastern Cape from Port Elizabeth, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.  These plants are also present in southern Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland).  Pollination agents include birds, bees, wasps, ants and hawk moths in the family Sphingidae.  These large, narrow winged, agile moths are fast flyers and their larvae feed on the leaves.  The Nectar also attracts birds, which include Collared Sunbirds.  Birds also consume Fruit and aid in seed dispersal.

Ethnobotany

The white Wood is hard and dense but narrow and not much used.  Leaves are edible and taste like watercress.  Seeds are removable from fruit and germinate quite easily.  Seedlings are often collectable from the base of the plant.  Young plants require watering and do best in open sunny protected area.  The reward is having a highly ornamental plant – especially when flowering (photo 143 under Tree).

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. Pavetta lanceolata Eckl. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version 2024.1. Accessed on 2026/01/13.

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/plantnop/pavetlance.htm

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

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

(PDF) Peltophorum africanum Sond [Mosetlha]: a review of its ethnomedicinal uses, toxicology, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities (researchgate.net)