Voacanga africana Stapf

Apocynaceae, A. J. M. Leeuwenberg and F. K. Kupicha et al.. Flora Zambesiaca 7:2. 1985

Morphology General Habit

Shrub-like tree or shrub 1–10(25) m. high.

Morphology Trunk

Trunk terete, 2–30 (40) cm. in diam., bark pale grey-brown, smooth or shallowly fissured near the base with some white latex.

Morphology Branches

Branches lenticellate; branchlets glabrous, puberulous, or pubescent, with more latex than in the bark.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves shortly petiolate or sessile; petiole glabrous to pubescent, up to 2 cm. long, those of a pair connate into a short ocrea, which is not widened into intrapetiolar stipules, with a single row of colleters in the axils; lamina usually pale green when plant in flower, when in fruit usually darker, especially above, herbaceous when fresh, membranous to papery when dry, variable in shape and size, elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 1·5–3·5(4) times as long as wide, 7–41·5 x 3–20 cm. (sometimes a little smaller), cuneate or decurrent into the petiole or base, not connate-perfoliate when sessile, acuminate with an often blunt apex or less often acute or obtuse in some leaves, glabrous on both surfaces to pubescent beneath all over and on the midrib above, with 8–22 secondary veins on each side; tertiary venation inconspicuous.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences usually long-pedunculate, 6–25 x 4–15 cm., usually many-flowered, fairly lax, 3·5–15·5 cm. long (incl. peduncle); peduncle pale green and glabrous to sparsely pubescent as branches and pedicels, usually slender; pedicels 3–20 mm. long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Bracts

Bracts deciduous, usually all shed before the first bud reaches full size, about as long as the calyx, ovate, obtuse, with a few persistent colleters at the edges of the axils; upper bracts often narrower; all bracts leaving conspicuous scars.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers malodorous.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx pale green (paler inside), 7–19 mm. long (when lobes erect), deciduous after the corolla has been shed and before the fruit develops, glabrous or puberulous, out and inside, inside with a zone of colleters from 1–2 mm. above the base of the tube to 1–2 mm. below the base of the lobes (the uppermost colleter near the edge of the base of the lobes and the remainder are arranged irregularly or in 1–3 rows above each other); tube cyathiform, 3·5–9 mm. long; lobes erect, 0·8–1·3 times as long as the tube, subequal, broadly ovate to oblong, 0·7–1·3(1·7) times as long as wide, 3·5–8 x 3·5–8 mm., obtuse, rounded, truncate, retuse, or emarginate at the apex, entire, imbricate in bud, usually partly recurved.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla creamy, greenish-creamy, yellow, or less often white, in the mature bud 17–31 mm. long, incl. the lobes (the lobes 1/2–2/3 the length of the bud, being 8·5–19 mm., forming an almost conical head with a blunt apex), glabrous or less often minutely puberulous on both sides and inside often pubescent from about 5 mm. above base to the insertion of the stamens, tube slightly shorter to slightly longer than the calyx (when the lobes erect), 7–15 mm. long, almost cylindrical, twisted from 2–3 mm. above the base, contracted at the base, in the middle, and at the mouth, at the mouth 3-5 mm. wide; lobes twisted in bud, obovate, narrowly obovate, or elliptic, 1·4–2·5 times as long as the tube, (1·1)1·5–2·2 times as long as wide, 12–37 x 7–16 mm., rounded or obtuse and usually with an upcurved margin at the apex, entire, spreading and often recurved later.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Stamens exserted for 0·5–1·2 mm. or occasionally just included, inserted 2–3 mm. below the corolla-mouth; anthers sessile, narrowly triangular, 4-5 x 1·3–2·5 mm., acuminate at the sterile apex and sagittate at the base, glabrous, usually twisted with the corolla.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Pistil

Pistil glabrous, 7–12·5 mm. long (when style straightened out); ovary 1·6–2·5 x 1·7-3 x 1·2–2 mm., of two carpels.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Carpels

Carpels connected at the base only by an entire ring-shaped disk-like 0·8–1·2 mm. high incrassation and at the apex by the style; style split at the base, narrowly obconical, 4–8 mm. long, twisted and curled at the base, at the apex slightly narrower than the clavuncula; clavulcula 1–1·7 x 1–1·7 mm., with a ring of 1·7–3 mm. in diameter.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary Ovules

Ovules about 200 in each carpel.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit composed of two separate mericarps of which often only one develops; carpels dark and very pale, green-spotted, obliquely subglobose, often slightly wider than long and laterally compressed, 3–8 x 3–8 x 2·5–7 cm., 2-valved; wall 5–15 mm. thick, creamy inside and on section.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds many, dark brown, dull, with orange aril, obliquely ellipsoid, 7–10 x 3·5–5 x 3–4 mm., laterally with 4–5 grooves, rough, minutely tuberculate.

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident