Cussonia arenicola Strey

Single-stemmed shrubs, 1-2 m high; stems 1-2 cm thick, arising singly from a globose, ovoid or turbinate tuber; basal tubers up to 14 cm broad and up to 25 cm long often several spaced along a single root; bark smooth greenish or grey. Leaves glabrous or with scattered scale-like papillae at the articulations, twice compound, first division digitate, bearing vertebrate leaflets; petiole ribbed, terete, up to 25 cm long, 2-4 mm thick; stipules intrapetiolar, joined at the base, adnate to the base of the petiole, lobes 2-3 mm long; limb of the leaf sub-circular in outline, about 20 cm in diam.; leaflets 4-7(12) per leaf, 6-18 cm long, chartaceous, dark green above, dull green beneath, margin revolute, serrate, 1-3 times vertebrate, petiolules about 1(2) cm long, usually narrowly winged, rhachilla wings obtriangular to obhastate; pinnules up to 9 cm long and 2-4 cm wide, sessile, 1-5, obovate-oblanceolate, or trullate, base cuneate, rounded, acute or apiculate. Inflorescence a terminal umbel consisting of (5)8-15(23) pedunculate, dense, cylindrical racemes arranged on the often distinctly swollen, bracteate, apex of the stems; peduncles of the racemes 3-18 cm long, (1)-2-4 mm thick; bracts subtending the peduncles binate, up to 1 cm long; racemes 3-9 cm long, 8-14 mm broad. Pedicels 1-2 mm long; bracts subtending flowers subulate, 2 mm long. Flowers loosely spirally arranged, white to greenish cream. Calyx reduced to a 4-toothed rim. Petals broadly ovate, caducous. Stamens about as long as the petals, caducous; anthers ovoid, introrse, versatile. Ovary inferior, 2-loculed; disc conical; style about 1 mm long, stigmas 2, divergent. Fruit 2(1) seeded, barrelshaped, about 4 x 4 mm, exocarp mauve and fleshy when ripe, calyx rim and styles persistent. Seed globose to subglobose, about 3 mm long; raphe with ovate areole; endosperm ruminate.