''Seemannaralia gerrardii'', commonly known as the wild-maple or mock carrot tree, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

in the family

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguisha ...

. It is the sole member of genus ''Seemannaralia'', and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, where it occurs in the Eastern Cape,

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 loca ...

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 was originally included in genus ''

Cussonia ''Cussonia'' is a genus of plants of the family Araliaceae, which is native to the Afrotropical realm, Afrotropics. It originated in Africa and has its Center of origin, center of distribution in South Africa and the Mascarene Islands. Due to th ...

''. ''Seemann-'' and ''gerrardii'' commemorate

Berthold Seemann Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Hanover, Germany – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua, Central America), was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America. In 1844 he trav ...

and

William Gerrard William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

respectively, while -''aralia'' suggests the family or its type genus, ''

Aralia ''Aralia'' , or spikenard, is a genus of the family Araliaceae, consisting of 68 accepted species of deciduous or evergreen trees, shrubs, and rhizomatous herbaceous perennials. The genus is native to Asia and the Americas, with most species occ ...

''.

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 ''

'' 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