''Gardenia thunbergia'' is a sturdy large shrub or small tree endemic to the southern and eastern regions of South Africa and neighbouring territories such as

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

. It grows largely in forest or on forest margins, occurring 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 ...

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ...

and

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ban ...

in South Africa. It is densely twiggy and rigid with smooth light-grey bark, and is horticulturally valuable, being easy to grow as a strong hedge, but more usually as a specimen plant, striking in appearance and long lived. The abundant and extremely fragrant flowers are about 70 mm in diameter with long tubes only accessible to the proboscises of nocturnal

hawkmoths The Sphingidae are a family of moths ( Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, b ...

. The leaves are smooth, shiny, whorled and entire, and clustered at the ends of branchlets. The fruit is oval, hard, woody and fibrous, about 80 mm long and about 40 mm in diameter, light grey with small raised white spots and if not eaten by large browsers or elephant, will remain on the tree for years. Its common names include forest gardenia, ''mutarara'' (in the

Shona language Shona (; sn, chiShona) is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It was codified by the colonial government in the 1950s. According to ''Ethnologue'', Shona, comprising the Zezuru, Korekore and Karanga dialects, is spoken by about 7 ...

),Farmer, Nancy: ''A Girl named Disaster''. Puffin Books, 1996, tree gardenia, white gardenia and wild gardenia. In

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

it is variously known as ''buffelsbol'' ("buffalo ball"), ''stompdoring'' ("blunt thorn"), or ''wildekatjiepiering'' ("wild gardenia"). The tree is a food plant for the larvae of some species of hawk moths such as the Oriental bee hawk moth, ''

Cephonodes hylas ''Cephonodes hylas'', the coffee bee hawkmoth, pellucid hawk moth or coffee clearwing, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771. A widely distributed moth, it is found in the Near East, Middle ...

'', and a favoured sap tree for '' Carlisis wahlbergi''. ''Gardenia thunbergia'' was first introduced to

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

as early as 1773. It belongs to the very large family of ''

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

'', which includes plants such as coffee (''

Coffea arabica ''Coffea arabica'' (), also known as the Arabic coffee, is a species of flowering plant in the coffee and madder family Rubiaceae. It is believed to be the first species of coffee to have been cultivated and is currently the dominant cultivar, r ...

''), quinine (''

Cinchona ''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the Tropical Andes, tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are ...

'') and numerous ornamental trees and shrubs with showy flowers. It is considered a means of repelling witchcraft in Karanga traditional medicine. Members of the Johane Masowe Apostolic Church carve crosses from the mutarara which they believe protects them against evil spirits. Gardenia thunbergia00.jpg, ''Gardenia thunbergia'' by Edith Struben (1868-1936) Gardenia thunbergia IMG 5865.JPG, Habit of a well-grown tree in a moist garden environment Gardenia thunbergia Detail of fruit IMG 5870.JPG, Detail of fruit that accumulates indefinitely on the tree until forcibly removed

References

External links

PlantZAfrica.com

{{Taxonbar , from=Q2893198

thunbergia ''Thunbergia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, native to tropical regions of Africa, Madagascar and southern Asia. ''Thunbergia'' species are vigorous annual or perennial vines and shrubs growing to 2–8 m tall. The ge ...

Trees of South Africa

See also

References

External links