Curtisia dentata (Burm.f.) C.A.Sm.

국표에 없다.

Family: Cornaceae

Common names: assegai (Eng.); assegaai (Afr.); uSirayi, umGxina (Xhosa); umLahleni (Xhosa, Zulu); uMagunda, uMaginda, umBese, umPhephelelangeni (Zulu); iliNcayi, isiNwati (Sw); modula-tshwene (Northern Sotho); musangwe, mufhefhera (Venda)

SA Tree No: 570

Curtisia dentata is a handsome, evergreen tree with beautiful foliage that looks good throughout the year. It has great potential as a garden tree, an evergreen hedge and a timber tree.

A medium to tall evergreen tree, 2-12 m and up to 20 m in height. The bark is smooth and grey or cinnamon-coloured in young specimens but it becomes rough, dark brown to black and deeply square-fissured with age. The leaves are simple, 25-100 x 19-76 mm, egg-shaped with pointed tips and coarsely toothed edges, and are arranged in opposite pairs. The leaf's upper surface is smooth and dark glossy green whereas the undersurface is grey-green with conspicuous veins. The undersurface of the leaf, the leaf stalk and the twigs are all covered with small, reddish hairs. Very young growth is velvety to the touch and bronze-gold in colour.

The flowers are inconspicuous, not very attractive nor are they scented. They are small, drab cream- or fawn-coloured and velvety and appear in much-branched sprays at the ends of twigs in spring-summer (Oct.-Mar.). They are often parasitized so that only a few produce seed.

The fruit is a small, rounded to oval, a fleshy berry, about 10 mm in diameter. They generally appear 6-10 months after flowering (May-Oct), and are white, or white tinged with pink, sometimes becoming red, and crowned with the remains of the calyx. The fruits contain a four-chambered nut, one seed per chamber, although not all four seeds are always formed. Fruits are edible but bitter. They remain on the tree for a long time and can be very decorative.

Curtisia dentata | PlantZAfrica (sanbi.org)

 

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