Thespesia acutiloba (Baker F.) Exell & Mendonça

Species

Angiosperms > Malvales > Malvaceae > Thespesia

Characteristics

Shrub or small tree to 5(-10) m. STEM Single, may branch low down. Bark pale grey, later dark and roughly furrowed. Branchlets dotted with scales. LVS Spiralled, usually 3-lobed and ivy-like, to 70 x 60 mm, 5 prominent veins from the base, shiny, green. Stalk to 45 mm, dotted with scales. FL Lemon-yellow, to 45 mm diam., singly in leaf axils or in terminal clusters, petals do not spread fully like Hibiscus spp, close mid afternoon, turn pinkish-brown. FR Red, ± round, to 20 mm diam., fleshy, on a cup-like calyx.
More
Leaf-lamina up to 7 × 6 cm., broadly ovate to suborbicular in outline, bluntly or rather acutely shallowly 3-lobed (more rarely entire), lepidote on both surfaces, apex somewhat acuminate, margins entire, base truncate to very shallowly cordate and 5-nerved; petiole up to 4·5 cm. long, slender, lepidote; stipules not seen.
Flowers 3–4·5 cm. in diam., solitary, axillary or forming terminal racemes or panicles by reduction of the upper leaves; peduncle 2–4 mm. long, 1–3-flowered, lepidote.
Epicalyx of 3–5 bracts c. 3 mm. long, linear to subulate, very early caducous.
Staminal tube 12–13 mm. long; free parts of filaments 3–3·5 mm. long.
Fruit subglobose, 15–16 mm. in diam., red, somewhat fleshy, glabrous.
Seeds 9 × 5–6 mm., irregularly lunate, glabrous or almost so.
Calyx 12 × 6–7 mm., lepidote outside, glabrous inside.
Small tree or shrub 2–5 m. tall; branchlets lepidote.
Petals up to 4·5×3 cm., obovate.
Life form perennial
Growth form
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention deciduous
Sexuality hermaphrodite
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 3.5 - 5.0
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color
Blooming months -
Fruit color
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway c3

Environment

Woodlands and thickets on recent sands near the coast, at elevations up to 100 metres.
Light -
Soil humidity -
Soil texture -
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

Uses medicinal wood
Edible -
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Can be grown by seedlings.
Mode seedlings
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment -
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Thespesia acutiloba unspecified picture

Distribution

Thespesia acutiloba world distribution map, present in Mozambique and South Africa

Conservation status

Thespesia acutiloba threat status: Least Concern

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:564693-1
WFO ID wfo-0001077631
COL ID 56FRY
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Thespesia populnea var. acutiloba Thespesia acutiloba