''Rapanea melanophloeos'', commonly known as Cape beech, Kaapse boekenhout or isiCalabi, is a dense evergreen tree that is native to the

afromontane forests The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...

. Outside forests they are also commonly encountered along stream banks and in gullies.

Distribution

The natural range of this stately tree is from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in the south, to

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

in the north. In the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

it is sometimes found alongside its smaller coastal relative, ''Rapanea gilliana''. Despite its common name it is not a close relative of the familiar

Beech tree Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

of the northern hemisphere, and it is actually more closely related to the

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

Description

''Rapanea melanophloeos'' is a dense

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

tree. Its leaves, stalks and berries often have a purple or maroon color. This tree is usually

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

(male and female flowers on different trees) and birds are attracted by its tiny, dark purple berries. The specific name 'melanophloeos' means 'black bark' and resulted from a mistaken identification of the source tree as Swartbas (''

Diospyros whyteana ''Diospyros whyteana'' (also known as the bladdernut, swartbas, wild coffee or umTenatane) is a small African tree of the ebony family. Bearing dark green, strikingly glossy leaves and creamy fragrant flowers, it is increasingly cultivated in Sou ...

'').

Cultivation

Rapanea melanophloeos tree - Harold Porter garden South Africa 2

''Rapanea melanophloeos'' is cultivated as an

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

and screening

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

in gardens, and as a potted

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

specimen. It is hardy and grows well in windy areas and near the coast. Once established, the plant is reasonably drought tolerant and has low maintenance needs. The plant sends up suckers from its roots that eventually become new trees, and so is best not planted adjacent to paving. Rapanea grows easily from seed.

Gallery

References

External links

''Rapanea melanophloeos'' at PlantZAfrica.com
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7293855 melanophloeos Flora of Southern Africa Afromontane flora Flora of South Africa Flora of Zambia Trees of South Africa Garden plants of Southern Africa Plants used in bonsai Ornamental trees Dioecious plants