''Hexalobus bussei'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family Annonaceae. It is native to

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

Ludwig Diels Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Prit ...

, the German botanist who first formally described the species, named it after another German botanist,

Walter Busse Walter Alejandro Busse (born 3 March 1987) is an Argentine football midfielder who plays for Gimnasia y Tiro. Career Busse began his playing career in 2004 with Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy in the Argentine 2nd division. He played in the Prim ...

, who collected the sample that Diels examined.

Description

It is a tree reaching 20-30 meters in height. Its trunk has brown to black, smooth bark that peels in flakes. Its young branches have light to dark brown bark and are covered in hairs. Its petioles are 1-7 by 2.5-7 millimeters in diameter and covered in sparse brown hair. Its oblong to oval, leathery leaves are 15.5-36 by 5.5-10.5 centimeters with tapering tips and heart-shaped bases. The glossy, grey hairless upper surfaces of the leaves have a slightly blistered or puckered appearance while the lower surfaces are hairless or covered in sparse brown hairs. The leaves have 12-17 pairs of secondary veins emanating from their midribs at angles of 55°-85°. Its solitary (sometimes 2), fragrant flowers are born

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

that are 1-1.2 centimeters long. The pedicels have several

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s and are covered in dense rust-colored hairs. Its 3 oval, leathery

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are 1.6-2 by 1.1-1.4 centimeters and densely covered in silky cream-colored to brown hairs. Its flowers have 6 petals that are fused at the base to form a 6-lobed corolla that is yellow with a purple base. The lance-shaped lobes are 3-5 millimeters long with rounded tips. The corollas are covered with white hairs. Its flowers have numerous oblong

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

that are 6.5-8 by 1.5 millimeters. The connective tissue between the lobes of the anther extends upward to form a broad, oblique, slanting cap. Its flowers have 3-7 densely hairy

carpels Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

that are 4.5-5 by 1-1.3 millimeters. Its horizontally positioned stigma are 3-4.6by 1-4 millimeters. Its orange, ridged, wrinkled, elliptical fruit occur in groups of 2-4, are 5.3-7.8 by 4 centimeters, and sparsely covered in rust-colored hairs. The fruit have 7-16, shiny, orange to brown, flattened, elliptical to oval seeds that are 2.3-2.8 by 1.7-1.9 by 8-10 millimeters.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''H. bussei'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed growing in tropical lowland rain forests at elevations of 0 to 200 meters.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17138261

Hexalobus ''Hexalobus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. There are five species native to tropical Africa.Botermans, M., Sosef, M. S., Chatrou, L. W., & Couvreur, T. L. (2011)Revision of the African genus ''Hexalobus'' (Annonaceae) ...

Flora of Cameroon Plants described in 1907 Taxa named by Ludwig Diels IUCN Red List endangered species Endangered plants