Bridelia atroviridis Müll.Arg.

Euphorbiaceae, A. Radcliffe-Smith. Flora Zambesiaca 9:4. 1996

Habit

A forest tree up to 20 m high with a straight trunk up to 45 cm in diameter.

Bark

Bark pale grey, ± smooth or rough.

Wood

Heartwood dark.

Branches

Branches spiny.

Twigs

Twigs brown to dark purplish-brown, sparingly lenticellate.

Shoots

Young shoots and petioles evenly to sparingly puberulous, later glabrescent, or else quite glabrous.

Petiole

Petioles 2–8 mm long.

Stipules

Stipules 3–8 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, acutely acuminate, evenly to sparingly pubescent, soon falling.

Leaf lamina

Leaf blades 2–17 × 1–10 cm, elliptic to oblanceolate, acutely acuminate, rounded-cuneate to subtruncate at the base, membranous, sparingly pubescent along the midrib and otherwise glabrous or else completely glabrous above, evenly to sparingly pubescent along the midrib and veins and sometimes glabrescent beneath, dark green and shiny above, mid-green and dull beneath, almost blackening above in drying; lateral nerves in 10–22 pairs, camptodromous, not or slightly prominent above, somewhat so beneath, tertiary nerves subparallel.

Male

Male flowers: pedicels c. 1 mm long, pubescent; sepals c. 2 × 1 mm, triangular-ovate, acute, pubescent without at the base, otherwise glabrous, often pinkish or purplish-tinged; petals 0.75 × 0.75 mm, spathulate, somewhat erose at the apex; disk 1.5 mm in diameter, annular, verruculose, ± entire; staminal column 1 mm high; anthers 0.75 mm long; pistillode 1 mm tall, ampulliform, bifid at the apex.

Flowers

Female flowers subsessile or very shortly pedicellate; sepals ± as in the male; petals 0.5 × 0.5 mm, spathulate, subentire; outer disk as in the male; inner disk 3-lobed, lobes c. 1 × 1 mm, ± triangular, toothed at apex; ovary 1 × 0.75 mm, ovoid, 2-celled, styles 2, c. 1 mm long, ± free, bifid, stigmas ± smooth. Male flowers: pedicels c. 1 mm long, pubescent; sepals c. 2 × 1 mm, triangular-ovate, acute, pubescent without at the base, otherwise glabrous, often pinkish or purplish-tinged; petals 0.75 × 0.75 mm, spathulate, somewhat erose at the apex; disk 1.5 mm in diameter, annular, verruculose, ± entire; staminal column 1 mm high; anthers 0.75 mm long; pistillode 1 mm tall, ampulliform, bifid at the apex.

Female

Female flowers subsessile or very shortly pedicellate; sepals ± as in the male; petals 0.5 × 0.5 mm, spathulate, subentire; outer disk as in the male; inner disk 3-lobed, lobes c. 1 × 1 mm, ± triangular, toothed at apex; ovary 1 × 0.75 mm, ovoid, 2-celled, styles 2, c. 1 mm long, ± free, bifid, stigmas ± smooth.

Fruits

Fruit 6–8 × 5–6(7) mm when dried, obovoid-ellipsoid, 1-locular by abortion, green at first, blackish-brown when ripe.

Seeds

Seed 4 mm long, smooth, shiny, chestnut-brown.