4562.000 Harpephyllum Bernh.

Tree. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, clustered at ends of branches. Flowers unisexual in axillary panicles. Male flowers: petals 4(-5), imbricate; stamens 7-10. Female flowers: perianth similar to male; staminodes conspicuous; ovary with 4-5 sessile stigmas. Fruit fleshy with a bony 4-5-locular endocarp, with only 2 loculi fertile.

Harpephyllum caffrum, the Wild plum, is recorded in FZ 2(2): 557 as a cultivated plant for S Zimbabwe. The specimen cited, which was sterile, is Munch 379, collected in Masvingo ("cultivated in the Glenlivet Garden") on 29 June 1952. The species is quite commonly planted as a street tree in Zimbabwe, but there is no evidence that it has ever become naturalised here. Also, although this South African species extends northwards into Limpopo Province and hence occurs not very far from our southern border, there are no records of it occurring as a native tree in Zimbabwe.

Derivation of name: from Greek: harpe meaning a sickle, phyllon, a leaf, referring to the sickle-shaped leaflets.

Worldwide: 1 species, South Africa.

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.