4629.000 Gymnosporia (Wight & Arn.) Hook. f.

Description of the genus

Trees or shrubs, usually armed with spines or spiny branchlets. Stipules free, small, caducous or 0. Leaves alternate or fasciculate (on short shoots). Flowers in cymes, usually functionally unisexual. Sepals 5(-6). Petals 5(-6), white, cream to greenish-yellow. Disk intrastaminal, single, convex to shallowly concave, entire or shallowly (4-)5-10(-12)-lobed or angled. Ovary superior. Stigma 2-3(-4)-branched. Fruit a dehiscent capsule, without outgrowths. Seeds 1-6(-8), glossy, red-brown, ± surrounded by a yellow, or more rarely a white or purple, aril.

Derivation of name: from the Greek gymnos meaning naked, spora meaning a seed, referring to the seeds that remain attached and exposed when the fruiting capsules open.

Mozambique: 13 taxa.

The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this genus:
Phalanta phalantha (African or Common Leopard)
Gymnosporia arenicola

Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsContent
arenicola Jordaan[NrEnd]N,Z,GI,MImage
buchananii Loes.T
buxifolia (L.) Szyszyl.MS,GI,MDescription, Image
glaucophylla JordaanMImage
gurueensis (N. Robson) Jordaan[End]Z
harveyana Loes. subsp. harveyana N/Z,MS,GIDescription, Image
maranguensis (Loes.) Loes.
markwardii Jordaan[NrEnd]N,Z,GI,M
mossambicensis (Klotzsch) Loes. subsp. mossambicensis N,Z,MS,GIDescription, Image
oxycarpa (N. Robson) Jordaan[NrEnd]GI
pubescens (N. Robson) Jordaan
putterlickioides Loes.N,TDescription, Image
senegalensis (Lam.) Loes.N,Z,T,MS,GI,MDescription, Image

Other sources of information about Gymnosporia:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Gymnosporia
Flora of Burundi: Gymnosporia
Flora of Caprivi: Gymnosporia
Flora of Malawi: Gymnosporia
Flora of Zambia: Gymnosporia
Flora of Zimbabwe: Gymnosporia
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Gymnosporia

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Gymnosporia
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Gymnosporia
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Gymnosporia
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Gymnosporia
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Gymnosporia
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Gymnosporia
JSTOR Plant Science: Gymnosporia
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Gymnosporia
Plants of the World Online: Gymnosporia
Tropicos: Gymnosporia
Wikipedia: Gymnosporia

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave 2007-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Mozambique: Genus page: Gymnosporia.
https://www.mozambiqueflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=886, retrieved 10 October 2024

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