Halleria lucida L.

Species

Angiosperms > Lamiales > Stilbaceae > Halleria

Characteristics

A slender tree. It grows up to 12 m tall. It can be a bush in poorer growing conditions. The trunk can be 38 cm across. The bark is grey or brown and has grooves and often peels off in long strips. The leaves are simple and in opposite pairs. The base is often unequal and broad. Leaves are 1.3-10 cm long by 0.6-7 cm wide. The leaves are light green and the edges toothed. The flowers are 2.5 cm long and trumpet-shaped. The flowers can be red, orange or cream. The fruit are berries. They are black when ripe. They have a jelly-like flesh and many small seeds. They are 18 mm across. They are edible.
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Dwarf shrub, shrub or tree, up to 10 m high; glabrous. Stems multiple, branches drooping. Leaves opposite; blade ovate or elliptic, up to 90 x 50 mm, apex acute to attenuate, base asymmetrical, square or broadly tapering, margins dentate or subentire. Flowers: axillary, in dense clusters, on old wood; corolla with tube up to 40 mm long, orange-red, Apr.-Aug. Fruit oval or globose berries, black when ripe.
Evergreen, dwarf shrub to tree, up to 13 m high; often many stems and branches drooping. Leaves ovate, acuminate, margins serrulate, petiolate. Flowers in axillary clusters, mostly on old wood. Calyx cup-shaped, 3-5-lobed. Corolla up to 40 mm long, tube funnel-shaped, usually curved and mouth oblique, orange to brick-red or pink, yellow at base. Flowering time mainly July-Oct.
Leaves petiolate; lamina 4.5–10 x 2.0–6.2 cm., broadly ovate, acuminate to caudate-acuminate, rounded to broadly cuneate at base, coriaceous, shortly serrate to serrate-crenate, glabrous, minutely glandular-punctate beneath; petiole 4–12 mm. long.
Corolla orange-yellow to brownish-red, 25–33 mm. long, tube curved, widening above to 6–10 mm. diam., slightly gibbous at base minutely glandular-pubescent without, mouth oblique, unequally 4-lobed; lobes not marginally pubescent.
Glabrous shrub or tree, up to 10 m high. Leaves opposite, ovate or elliptic, up to 90 x 50 mm, dentate or subentire. Berries oval or globose. Flowers axillary, subfasciculate, corolla tube up to 30 mm long, orange-red.
Shrub or small tree to 12 m. Leaves ovate, shiny, toothed. Flowers orange or greenish yellow, corolla tubular, curved, 5-lobed.
Pedicels 10–14 mm. long with pair of bracteoles below the middle; very sparse, irregularly hirsute.
Calyx 2.4–3.5 mm. long, lobes 3.8–4.2 mm. wide, joined to beyond halfway, rounded, subglabrous.
Berry 12–18 mm. long, 8.5–14 mm. in diam., ovoid to subglobose, blackish-purple when ripe.
Small tree or erect to straggling shrub up to 12 m. tall; branches sub-quadrangular.
Bracteoles 1–1.8 x 0.4–0.5 mm., lanceolate.
Stamens long exserted.
Style 20–38 mm. long.
Life form perennial
Growth form
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality -
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 10.0
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color
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Fruit color -
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Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway -

Environment

Montane forests and slopes to river margins and gallery forests. Coastal and karroid scrub, deep evergreen forest, forest margins, forested ravines, rocky mountain slopes, near rivers and on stream banks in S. Africa.
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A subtropical plant. It grows on the edge of mountain and river forests. It can tolerate some frost but does not thrive in cold conditions. It suits hardiness zones 8-10.
Light -
Soil humidity 1-5
Soil texture 7-8
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 9-11

Usage

The fruit are eaten raw. They are very sweet. They are used in fruit salads. They can be stored. The flowers are sucked for their nectar.
Uses environmental use food fuel gene source material medicinal wood
Edible flowers fruits nectars
Therapeutic use Charm (unspecified), Fruit (unspecified), Nectar (unspecified)
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Plants can be grown from seed. The flesh should be removed from the seeds. These take about 6 weeks to germinate. Plants can also be grown from cuttings. These are best treated with a rooting hormone. Roots develop in about 6 weeks. Plants can also be grown by layering. A spacing of 1-4 m is suitable.
Mode cuttings seedlings
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
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Optimum temperature (C°) -
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Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Flower

Halleria lucida flower picture by Djah François Malan (cc-by-sa)

Distribution

Halleria lucida world distribution map, present in Angola, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, eSwatini, Tanzania, United Republic of, Uganda, Yemen, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Conservation status

Halleria lucida threat status: Least Concern

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:803581-1
WFO ID wfo-0000714852
COL ID 6KZ7D
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN) Link
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Halleria lucida Halleria abyssinica Halleria elliptica