Cotylelobium melanoxylon Pierre

Young leaves, twig, stipules outside, bud and raceme densely shortly powdery grey tomentose, fugaceous on leaf and midrib, +-so on twigs, persistent on racemes. Twig to 1 mm ø apically, terete, slender, minutely striated with fine cracks; stipule scars obscure. Bud c. 1.5 by 1 mm, ovoid, acute. Stipules to 3 mm long, small, linear, caducous. Leaves 5-10 by 2-6 cm, ovate-lanceolate, oblong or obovate; base broadly cuneate or obtuse; acumen to 8 mm; margin ± revolute; nerves 10-13 pairs, slender, hardly raised beneath, with more slender shorter parallel intermediates; intramarginal nerve strongly looped, c. 2 mm within the margin; petiole 9-12 mm long. Panicle to 8 mm long, axillary, slender, singly branched; bracts and bracteoles to 10 by 3 mm, lanceolate, acute, shortly pubescent outside, glabrescent within. Flower bud to 6 by 3 mm, ellipsoid, obtuse. Calyx densely pubescent outside, sparsely so within; lobes subequal, narrowly deltoid, acute. Petals narrowly ovate, obtuse, sparsely pubescent on parts exposed in bud. Stamens 15, subequal; filaments linear, tapering, c. 3 times as long as the anther, half as long as the style, sparsely ciliate along lateral margins; appendage to connective c. 1/4 as long as the anther, short, slender. Ovary ovoid, densely pubescent; style filiform, slender, c. 3 times as long as the ovary, pubescent towards base, otherwise glabrous. Fruit calyx persistently pubescent towards base, glabrescent elsewhere; 2 longer lobes to 4.5 by 1.2 cm, oblong, obtuse, c. 2 mmTroad at base; 3 shorter lobes 8-14 by 2-3 mm, hastate, acute, fimbriate; lobes united at base into a shallow cup c. 8 mm ø. Nut c. 6 mm long and broad, ovoid, with up to 5 mm long style remnant, shortly pale buff tomentose.

A main canopy tree of dry, often sandy, acid soils, especially on coastal hills, but also on rentzinas over limestone and mountain ridges inland to elevations of 1,500 metres. Sometimes found in secondary forests.

Can be grown by seedlings.