Lamiaceae
Vitex

Vitex zanzibarensis Vatke

First published in Linnaea 43: 533 (1882)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is E. Tropical Africa. It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the desert or dry shrubland biome.

Descriptions

Verbenaceae, B. Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1992

Morphology General Habit
Habit very variable; shrub 4–5 m. or tree 5–16(–24) m. tall and 1.3 m. diameter at breast height or scandent shrub to genuine liane; bark yellowish or brown, gnarled, flaking and longitudinally fissured or striated; underbark bright yellow with red streaks; stems grey, ± glabrescent.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves with pungent odour, 3–5-foliolate; leaflets sessile, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3–13 cm. long, 1–6.5 cm. wide, long-acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, entire, ± glabrous but gland-dotted above and beneath; petiole winged or unwinged, 1.5–9 cm. long, 0.2–1 cm. wide.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Panicles terminal and axillary combined and lower axillary ones also sometimes present, extensive, ± 15 cm. long, 6–15 cm. wide; peduncles 3–7 cm. long; pedicels obsolete or very short, axes densely adpressed pubescent; bracts linear, 1 cm. long; bracteoles narrowly triangular, 1 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
Calyx 1–1.5 mm. long, ribbed, adpressed pubescent and glandular, shallowly toothed.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Corolla white, bluish purple or mauve, adpressed pubescent outside; tube 3–4 mm. long, densely pubescent and glandular, limb 7 mm. wide, the small lobes 2.5 mm. long and wide and larger lip 3–5 mm. long, 3–3.5 mm. wide.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Fruit orange to black, globose, 8–10 mm. diameter, juicy, the juice dark blue; calycine cup plate-like, 4–5.5 mm. wide.
Habitat
Deciduous coastal thicket and dry forest, particularly at edges, woodland; 0–10 & 360–600 m.
Distribution
K7 T3 T6 T8
[FTEA]

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
[AERP]

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/34459/9869962

Conservation
VU - vulnerable
[IUCN]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0