''Drypetes gerrardii'' is a species of small tree or large shrub in the family

Putranjivaceae Putranjivaceae is a rosid family that is composed of 218 species in 2 genera of evergreen tropical trees that are found mainly in the Old World tropics, but with a few species in tropical America. Members of this family have 2-ranked coriaceo ...

. Common names include forest ironplum, bastard white ironwood, and forest ironwood. It is native to tropical and subtropical central and eastern Africa. It was first described in 1920 by the English botanist John Hutchinson, who named it after the English botanist

William Tyrer Gerrard William Tyrer Gerrard (1831 – 9 July 1866) was an English botanical collector in Natal and Madagascar in the 1860s. The genus ''Gerrardanthus'' is named in his honor. Gerrard was born in Knowsley, Merseyside, England, and died at age 34 o ...

who collected plants and seeds in southern Africa in the 1860s.

Description

''Drypetes gerrardii'' is a small tree or large evergreen shrub, growing to a height of about . The trunk is fluted and buttressed in larger trees, and the bark is smooth. Small branches and twigs are squarish in cross section and are clad in golden hairs when young. The leaves are alternate and held in one plane. The blades are ovate to elliptic and up to long, shiny dark green above and pale green below with a felting of pale hairs on the leaf stalk and the midrib. The leaf margin is entire or lightly toothed and the tip acute or

acuminate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

. Male and female flowers are found on separate trees; they are small, yellowish-white and hairy, male flowers being in a group in the axil of a leaf, and female flowers being solitary. The fruits are fleshy, hairy, spherical

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

s up to in diameter, ripening to a yellow or orange-red colour.

Distribution and habitat

This tree is native to Central and Eastern Africa, where its range extends from South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, southwards to Angola, eastern South Africa and Eswatini. In South Africa it is found 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 Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...

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 grows in drier

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zone ...

s, in riverine corridor forests, and sometimes in wetter

rain forest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

s, as well as in scrubby habitats, at altitudes between .

Uses

As a small tree, the timber of ''Drypetes gerrardii'' is not traded but is used locally for poles, tool handles, furniture, utensils and pestles. It is also used as firewood and for making

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

. The flowers are nectar-rich and attract honeybees and the fruit is edible. The tree has limited use in

traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...

, a decoction prepared from the roots being used for abdominal pain and powdered leaves and roots being used to treat

gonorrhea Gonorrhea, colloquially known as the clap, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium '' Neisseria gonorrhoeae''. Infection may involve the genitals, mouth, or rectum. Infected men may experience pain or burning with ...

. The tree is sometimes grown to provide shade.

Status

The conservation status of this tree is said to be of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

" in South Africa. It is in general a common tree in dry evergreen forests.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15374219 Drypetes Trees of Africa Plants described in 1920 Afromontane flora