''Catophractes alexandri'', the only species in the genus ''Catophractes'', is a spiny shrub or small tree up to 3m tall, belonging to the family

Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae () is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpet vines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant ...

and occurring in the hot, low-rainfall regions of

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

, the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid climate, semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, western

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

and

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

. Preferring calcrete, limestone outcrops and soils, the species often forms pure communities, or grows in association with '' Colophospermum mopane'', '' Rhigozum virgatum'', '' Phaeoptilum spinosum'' and '' Acacia nebrownii''. It is parasitised by several ''

Tapinanthus Haustorium and fruit of ''Tapinanthus oleifolius'' file:Amethyst sunbird, Chalcomitra amethystina, female at Kloofendal Nature Reserve, Johannesburg, South Africa (21354148246).jpg"> Tapinanthus_rubromarginatus.html" ;"title="Ornithophily in '' ...

'' spp. The specific name honours

James Edward Alexander General Sir James Edward Alexander (16 October 1803 – 2 April 1885) was a Scottish traveller, writer and soldier in the British Army. Alexander was the driving force behind the placement of Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment. B ...

, the Victorian soldier and explorer, while the generic name refers to leaves and flowers arising from below the paired,

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...

, opposite spines. Leaves are tufted (fascicled) or opposite, and densely tomentose and grey. They are simple and elliptic to obovate, up to 4 cm long, and with coarsely dentate or scalloped margins. The white or pink flowers, produced after rain, are about 10 cm in length, fragrant, showy or specious, 5-lobed, and with a yellow throat. Inside the tube there is a broad, villous band below the origin of the filaments. The calyx is tubular with linear teeth, and slit on one side. The fruit is a flattened, woody capsule, some 10 cm long, warty and splitting or dehiscing across the flat faces into two equal parts. Old fruits are pendant and produce a characteristic clicking sound in light breezes, caused by the castanet-like tapping of the two hollow parts. Seeds are papery and winged. Descriptions of this species appeared in "Ann. Nat. Hist." ii. (1839) 375;—"Proc. Linn. Soc." i. (1839) 4; "Trans. Linn. Soc." xviii. (1841) 307, t. 22; "DC. Prodr." ix. 233; Kuntze in "Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berl." iv. (1886) 270; Engl. in "Engl. Jahrb." x. 255; K. Schum. in "Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenf." iv. 3B, 233.

Medicinal use

The root is chewed for stomach complaints, and when added to the root of ''Polygala leptophylla'' Burch., is used as a decoction for abdominal pain, especially in children. Leaf, root and bark infusions and decoctions are used to treat colds and coughs.

Local names

*!khabab - Damara *Omukaravize -

Otjiherero Herero (Otjiherero) is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were speakers in these countries between 2015 and 2018. Distr ...

*Gabbabos -

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

Synonyms

*''Catophractes welwitschi'' Seem., in Journ. Bot. 1865, 331, t. 39. *''Catophractes kolbeana'' Harv., Gen. S. Afr. Pl. ed. ii. 276.

References

External links

Southern African Plants galleryJSTORFlora of ZimbabweGalleryGallery

Gallery

Catophractes alexandri01b.jpg, Catophractes alexandri00.jpg, Catophractes alexandri03.jpg, Southern Zimbabwe {{Taxonbar, from1=Q2942979, from2=Q247104 Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae genera Monotypic Lamiales genera