Pleurostylia africana Loes.

Tree or shrub 1–16(–20) m. high, with rounded crown; branches pale grey-green and 4-lined when young, becoming vinous red, eventually terete.. Leaf-lamina deep or bright green and glossy above, concolorous or slightly paler beneath, narrowly or rather broadly elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 3.5–9.5(–12) × 1–4 cm., acute to acuminate or rarely obtuse at the apex, with margin entire, attenuate at the base, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, with reticulate venation equally prominent on both sides; petiole 3–8 mm. long.. Cymes 0.5–1.4 cm. long, dense, rounded, with peduncle 1–4 mm. long or almost absent; pedicels up to 2 mm. long; flowers 3– ± 15 in each cyme, 2–3 mm. in diameter.. Sepals broadly ovate to semicircular, rounded, 0.5–1 mm. long, with margin entire.. Petals oblong, 1–1.5(–2) mm. long, sessile, with margin finely ciliolate-denticulate, concolorous.. Stamens shorter than petals, with filaments ± 0.5 mm. long.. Disc 0.5–1 mm. in diameter.. Ovary ovoid, slightly asymmetric; ovules 2(–3).. Drupe green, obovoid to ellipsoid, 7–8 mm. long.. Seed 1, plano-convex.. Fig. 6, p. 28.