Eugenia umtamvunensis A.e.van Wyk

Androdioecious tree up to 10 m high. Bark grey or whitish, smooth or flaking off in thick irregular pieces, slash dark brown. Branchlets dark rusty-brown becoming grey when mature, often with irregular longitudinal ribs, initially flattened, glabrous; buds glabrous to densely pubescent; internodes (7)15-25(35) mm long. Leaves decussate, petiolate, lamina reddish-brown when young, becoming deep green and shiny above, light green, dull and clearly dotted with secretory cavities below, glabrous, usually elliptic to broadly elliptic or obovate to broadly obovate, (25)40-80(90) mm long, (15)30-55(60) mm wide; apex obtuse or rounded and sometimes shortly and bluntly acuminate; base obtuse, thick and coriaceous; margin revolute in dried and fresh leaves; venation pinnately net veined, midrib in dried leaves usually with basal half concave and slightly raised, or plane in upper half above, strongly elevated below; plane or slightly elevated above and prominently elevated below in fresh leaves; primary lateral veins alternate or opposite, (3)5-6(8) pairs, spreading, raised on both sides in dried leaves, slightly raised or flat on both sides in fresh leaves, fused into a longitudinal lobed marginal vein about 1-4(6) mm from the margin of the lamina; tertiary veins slightly raised on both sides in dried leaves, obscure in fresh ones; petiole (2)3-4(5) mm long, ventrally plane, glabrous. Inflorescences consisting of usually 1-5 brachyblasts (fasciculiform-racemiform conflorescences) up to 6 mm long in the axils of fallen leaves on branchlets of previous seasons, each brachyblast with 1-5 flowers and remaining floriferous for a number of seasons, very rarely with flowers solitary in the axils of bracts on the first few nodes of the new season's growth. Staminate flowers sessile or with pedicels up to 4(6) mm long; bracteoles 2, fleshy, attached at the base of the hypanthium, ca. 1.0 mm long, ca. 0.75 mm wide, ovate with the apex obtuse or rounded, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs, secretory cavities usually present. Sepals 4, subrotund with rounded apices, 2 large, ca. 3.0 mm long, ca. 3.2 mm wide, 2 small, ca. 2.0 mm long, ca. 3.0 mm wide, outer surface sparingly gland-dotted, glabrous or margins often with a few scattered hairs. Petals 4, white, usually elliptic or ovate, ca. 5.0 mm long, ca. 4.0 mm wide, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs on the margin, sparingly gland-dotted. Disc with a central depression, surface even, fleshy and sparingly pubescent between filaments. Stamens usually 40-55, arising from the disc in ca. 3 series; filaments of various lengths, ca. 2-6 mm long; anthers 2-thecous, 1 x 0.75 mm, all fertile. Hypanthium more or less obconical, ca. 1.75 mm long, glabrous and conspicuously gland-dotted. Ovary aborted or rudimentary; style rudimentary, ca. 0.5 mm long or absent. Bisexual flowers with the pedicels, bracteoles, sepals, petals and stamens as in staminate flowers. Disc slightly convex with an even surface, fleshy, sparingly pubescent between filaments, with a smooth zone ca. 1.0 mm wide surrounding the base of the style. Hypanthium obconical, ca. 2.0 mm long, resembling that of the staminate flowers. Ovary fused to the lower part of the hypanthium, 2-locular; ovules usually 2 per locule, 2 or rarely 1 or 3 developing; style filiform, terete, glabrous, ca. 4.5 mm long; stigma small, somewhat capitate, covered with small papillae. Fruit a fleshy berry, changing yellow through reddish-orange to dark purple when ripe, subglobose, usually 25.0-30.0 mm diam., glabrescent with persistent calyx lobes at the apex; pericarp 6.0-12.0 mm thick, flesh whitish. Seeds subreniform to oblong globose, often with one flattened lateral side in 2-seeded fruits, testa leathery, ca. 0.25 mm thick, brownish; embryo with cotyledons partly fused, gland-dotted. Flowers were collected during October/November and ripe fruits in February.