''Seemannaralia gerrardii'', commonly known as the wild-maple or mock carrot tree, is a species of
flowering plant in the family
Araliaceae. It is the sole member of genus ''Seemannaralia'', and is
endemic to
South Africa, where it occurs 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 ...
,
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
,
Limpopo and
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...
provinces.
It was originally included in genus ''
Cussonia''. ''Seemann-'' and ''gerrardii'' commemorate
Berthold Seemann and
William Gerrard respectively, while -''aralia'' suggests the family or its type genus, ''
Aralia''.
Description
A short squat tree of open rocky situations, or a tall tree of forest and forest edge.
The rough grey bark is deeply cracked. As with genus ''
Cussonia'' the leaves are clustered at the ends of branches. The leaf shape is characteristic: maple-like, palmate and 3 to 7 lobed.
Leaves turn yellow in autumn.
Flowers and fruit
The small, yellowish green flowers are produced in autumn,
in axillary and terminal panicles of umbels.
The oval flower petals have an intricate estivation.
The superior ovary is 1
or 2-
locular,
and much compressed laterally.
The purplish drupes appear in winter. They are of a flattened, elliptic shape, with lateral veins.
Gallery
image:Seemannaralia gerrardii.jpg, Panicle of flower umbels
image:Seemannaralia gerrardii, crop.jpg, Close-up of two flower umbels
External links
Araliaceae
Monotypic Apiales genera
{{Araliaceae-stub