''Olea welwitschii'', the Elgon teak, is a species of tree in the family
Oleaceae
Oleaceae, also known as the olive family, is a taxonomic family of flowering shrubs, trees, and a few lianas in the order Lamiales, It presently comprises 28 genera, one of which is recently extinct.Peter S. Green. 2004. "Oleaceae". pages 296-30 ...
. It ranges across parts of subsaharan Africa, from Cameroon in the west to Ethiopia and Kenya in the east, and south to Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique. It is a forest species, ranging from lowland tropical rainforests to evergreen montane forests.
[Aerts, R., 2011. Olea capensis L. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 20 March 2020.]
''Olea welwitschii'' is evergreen, and can grow up to 35 meters in height. It is used locally and commercially for timber.
''Olea welwitschii'' is sometimes classified as a subspecies of ''
Olea capensis
''Olea capensis'', the black ironwood, is an African tree species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa: from the east in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, south to the tip of South Africa, and west to Cameroon, Sierra ...
''.
The species is named for botanist
Friedrich Welwitsch
Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (25 February 1806 – 20 October 1872) was an Austrian explorer and botanist who in Angola was the first European to describe the plant ''Welwitschia mirabilis''. His report received wide attention among the b ...
.
References
welwitschii
Afromontane flora
{{Oleaceae-stub