''Strychnos camptoneura'' 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

Loganiaceae The Loganiaceae are a family of flowering plants classified in order Gentianales. The family includes up to 13 genera, distributed around the world's tropics. There are not any great morphological characteristics to distinguish these taxa from ot ...

family. It is native to

Camaroon 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 ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

and

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

Description

It is a woody climbing plant reaching 45 meters in height but totaling up to 120 meters in length and 2-25 centimeters in diameter. Its bark is dark brown with large lenticels. Its hard wood is yellow to orange-brown. Its branches are small, hairless, and lack lenticels. Its

tendril In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as '' Cuscuta''. There are many plants that have tend ...

s occur in groups of 1-3 pairs. Its hairless petioles are 7-17 millimeters long. Its hairless, slightly leathery to leathery, elliptical to oval leaves are 6-31 X 3-12 centimeters with pointed to tapering tips and wedge-shaped or rounded bases. The upper surface of the leaves are shiny. The basal pair of secondary veins in the leaf are larger than the others. Its

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s have 5 flowers in axillary, or sometimes terminal positions. The flowers are on hairless, green

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 ...

attached to hairless, green peduncles. Its pale green, rounded, hairless

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, 2–3.5 millimeters long and fused at their base. Its white to yellow corollas are 5-lobed. The triangular to oval lobes are 4-6 by 1.7-3 millimeters with pointed tips. The base of the corollas are 4-6 millimeter long tubes. The outer surfaces of the corollas are hairless and the inner surfaces have fine hairs at their tips. Its

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 ...

are attached at the throat of the corolla and have hairless filaments and narrow, oblong anthers that are 2.2-3 by 0.6-0.7 millimeters. Its hairless

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'' ...

are 8-9 millimeters long. Its oval

ovaries The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. T ...

are 3-4 x 2-2.5 millimeters with two compartments. Each compartment has more than 50

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the fe ...

s. Its hard, elliptical to oval, yellow fruit are 6.5-20 by 6-13.5 centimeters with pointed or rounded tips. The fruit have two compartments each containing orange pulp and 2-112 seeds. The hairless flattened, convex, oval to oblong seeds are 25-50 by 20-40 by 3-6 millimeters. The seeds have irregularly shaped wings that are 1-6 millimeter wide.

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed growing in rain forests at elevations of 0 to 700 meters.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15349097 camptoneura Species described in 1905 Flora of Cameroon Flora of the Central African Republic Flora of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Flora of Gabon Flora of Ivory Coast Flora of Liberia Flora of Nigeria Flora of the Republic of the Congo Taxa named by Walter Carl Otto Busse