Brachystegia angustistipulata De Wild.

Leguminosae, J. B. Gillett, R. M. Polhill & B. Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1971

Morphology General Habit

Tree 2.5–6 m. high; habit gnarled; bark finely to coarsely reticulate-fissured, grey, brownish or black; crown few-branched, flat-topped; foliage pendulous in loose bunches.

Morphology Leaves Stipules

Stipules shortly connate, linear, ± falcate, 1.5–2 cm. long, caducous; auricle lateral, small, or 0; intrapetiolar stipule-bases persistent, usually prominent, subtending flattened and keeled dormant buds.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves glabrous or shortly appressed-pilose throughout, with (4–)5–7(–9) widely-spaced pairs of leaflets, the middle pairs usually the largest; petiole (1.5–)2–5 cm. long, pulvinus prominent, dark; rhachis (13–)15–20(–25) cm. long, channelled; stipellar expansions usually obscure or absent; leaflets oblong to narrowly ovate, rarely falcate, (2–)3–11 × (1–)2–3(–4) cm., obtuse or acute to acuminate, obliquely truncate-subcordate to rounded-cuneate at base; midrib subcentral; basal fanwise nerves (2–)3–4; lateral nerves slender, rather close; surfaces closely but often obscurely reticulate.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Panicles terminal and axillary, 5–10 × 4–7 cm., ± densely puberulous.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers rather large; bracteoles (6–)7–9(–11) × 5–6 mm.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Tepal

Tepals 4–6(–8), free or some connate; outer broadly imbricate, 1.5–3 × 1–3 mm., densely and usually long-ciliate; inner 0 or 1–2, linear.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Stamens ± 10, free, filaments 9–11 mm. long; disc-glands usually prominent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary

Ovary 3.5–5 × 1–1.5 mm., margins crispate-setose.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pod woody, up to 16 × 4 cm., maturing pale brown, thin, becoming densely scurfy very early; sutural wings thin, each 6–8 mm. wide.

Figures

Fig. 35/12, p. 160.

Habitat

Deciduous woodland; 980–1525 m. Gregarious and local, evidently rare; seems to favour ill-drained soils below hills or wet sites close to drainage-lines with Acacia, Combretum or Terminalia and Isoberlinia angolensis, or in patches in Julbernardia globiflora-Brachystegia boehmii woodland. Apparently confined, in the Flora area, to extreme west Tanganyika.

Distribution

T4

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Not Threatened

Ecology

Africa: Zambezian woodland

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Tree

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: threatened. Confidence: low confidence