''Heteropyxis'' is a genus which includes three species of small evergreen

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s. It was previously placed alone in the family Heteropyxidaceae, but is now placed basally within

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...

. The species of ''Heteropyxis'' are native to southern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. ''Heteropyxis natalensis'', commonly known as lavender tree or ''laventelboom'', ranges from

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 ...

through

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 ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

and

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is a slender, upright tree which grows 5–7 metres in height, at forest margins, rocky outcrops, hillsides, and termite mounds. It bears

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

s of fragrant

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s, cream to pale yellow in colour, from December to March. Many classification schemes place ''Heteropyxis'' within the family

. Recent embryological and DNA analyses seem to indicate that ''Heteropyxis'' and '' Psiloxylon'', the sole members of the family Psiloxylaceae, are sister taxa to the Myrtaceae, but diverged before the origin of the common ancestor of the Myrtaceae.

References

* Tobe, Hiroshi and Raven, Peter H. "Embryology and Systematic Position of Heteropyxis (Myrtales)". ''American Journal of Botany'', Vol. 74, No. 2 (Feb., 1987), pp. 197–208. Myrtaceae genera Flora of South Africa Flora of Zimbabwe Taxa named by William Henry Harvey {{rosid-tree-stub