''Spirostachys africana'' is a medium-sized (about tall) deciduous
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
with a straight, clear trunk, occurring in the warmer parts of
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 ...
. Its wood is known as tamboti, tambotie, tambootie or tambuti.
It prefers growing in single-species
copse
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeated ...
s in deciduous woodland, often along watercourses or on brackish flats and sandy soils.
Description
The leaves are small, elliptic with crenate margins, and turn bright red in winter before dropping. The
petiole has 2 small glands at the distal end. The grey-black rough
bark is distinctively split into neat rectangles. The
catkin
A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in ''Salix''). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged cl ...
-like
flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
s appear in early spring before the leaves. Male and female flowers are borne separately on the same tree (
monoecious
Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy.
Monoecy is conne ...
). The small 3-lobed capsules or
schizocarp
A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps.
There are different definitions:
* Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate.
: Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...
s split into three equal
indehiscent
Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part; structures that op ...
segments (
mericarp
A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps.
There are different definitions:
* Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate.
: Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...
s or
cocci
A coccus (plural cocci) is any bacterium or archaeon that has a spherical, ovoid, or generally round shape. Bacteria are categorized based on their shapes into three classes: cocci (spherical-shaped), bacillus (rod-shaped) and spiral ( of whi ...
) when ripe; on a warm day this splitting (
dehiscence) can sound like a distant
fusillade
A fusillade is the simultaneous and continuous firing of a group of firearms on command. It stems from the French word ''fusil'', meaning firearm, and ''fusiller'' meaning to shoot.
In the context of military tactics, the term is generally used t ...
of shots. The seeds are globose with a chartaceous
testa.
Wood and toxicity
Despite it being prone to
heart-rot, it is prized in the
furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
industry for its beautiful, dense and durable
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
, which is reddish-brown with darker streaks, a satin-like lustre and extremely fragrant sweet, spicy smell. The underbark exudes a white, poisonous
latex
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
when freshly cut, and campfires that burn tamboti fuel give off noxious fumes contaminating meat or other food grilled on the open flames or coals. The latex is used as a
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
poison, is applied to arrow-tips and is used as a
purgative
Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation.
Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...
by indigenous tribes.
Jumping beans
The fruits while green are frequently parasitised by the small grey
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
''
Emporia melanobasis
''Emporia melanobasis'' is a species of snout moth in the genus '' Emporia''. It was described by Boris Balinsky in 1991, and is known from South Africa.
Jumping beans
The larvae pupate inside fruit of ''Spirostachys africana''. Larvae develop ...
'' (
Pyralidae
The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyrali ...
:
Phycitinae
The Phycitinae are a subfamily of snout moths (family Pyralidae). Even though the Pyralidae subfamilies are all quite diverse, Phycitinae stand out even by standards of their family: with over 600 genera considered valid and more than 4000 specie ...
). Larvae develop within the growing fruits which show no external damage. When the fruits are mature each splits into 3 cocci. The larvae jack-knife inside the fallen segments, causing them to move about erratically and vigorously, to the surprise of the uninitiated. This has led to the name "jumping bean tree". The
Mexican jumping bean
Mexican jumping beans (also known as ' in Spanish) are seed pods that have been inhabited by the larva of a small moth (''Cydia saltitans'') and are native to Mexico. The "bean" is usually tan to brown. They are from the shrub '' Sebastiania pa ...
, ''
Sebastiania
''Sebastiania'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae first described in 1821. It is native to North and South America from Arizona and the West Indies south to Uruguay.Webster, G. L. & M.J. Huft. 1988. Revised synopsis of Pa ...
sp.'', also belongs to the family
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...
and is parasitised by the moth ''
Cydia saltitans
''Cydia saltitans'' or jumping bean moth is a moth from Mexico that is most widely known as its larva, where it inhabits the carpels of seeds from several related shrubby trees, mainly '' Sebastiania pavoniana'' or '' Sapium biloculare'' ( syn ...
''.
Gallery
Spirostachys africana, lower, Skrikfontein, a.jpg, ''S. africana'' foliage
File:Spirostachys africana capsule.JPG, fruit capsule or schizocarp
A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps.
There are different definitions:
* Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate.
: Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...
Spiafr01.jpg, fruit and fruit segments or mericarp
A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps.
There are different definitions:
* Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate.
: Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...
s
Spiafr03.jpg, mericarp with ''Emporia melanobasis'' larva
Spiafr12a.jpg, Wood
Spiafr05a.jpg, Log with heart-rot
See also
*
List of Southern African indigenous trees
This is a list of Southern African trees, shrubs, suffrutices, geoxyles and lianes, and is intended to cover Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The notion of 'indigenous' is of ...
References
*''Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa'' - John Mitchell Watt & Maria Gerdina Breyer-Brandwyk (E&S Livingstone 1962)
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7578203
Hippomaneae
Trees of South Africa
Flora of Mozambique
Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder