''Spirostachys africana'' is a medium-sized (about tall) deciduous

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 ...

with a straight, clear trunk, occurring in the warmer parts of

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. Its wood is known as tamboti, tambotie, tambootie or tambuti. It prefers growing in single-species

copse Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

s in deciduous woodland, often along watercourses or on brackish flats and sandy soils.

Description

The leaves are small, elliptic with crenate margins, and turn bright red in winter before dropping. The

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

has 2 small glands at the distal end. The grey-black rough

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

is distinctively split into neat rectangles. The

catkin A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind- pollinated ( anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). It contains many, usually unisexual flowers, arra ...

-like

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 appear in early spring before the leaves. Male and female flowers are borne separately on the same tree (

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...

). The small 3-lobed capsules or

schizocarp A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps. There are different definitions: * Any Dry fruits, dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate. : Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more ...

s split into three equal

indehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that ...

segments (

mericarp A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps. There are different definitions: * Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate. : Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the ...

s or

cocci Bacterial cellular morphologies are the shapes that are characteristic of various types of bacteria and often key to their identification. Their direct examination under a light microscope enables the classification of these bacteria (and archaea ...

) when ripe; on a warm day this splitting ( dehiscence) can sound like a distant

fusillade A fusillade is the simultaneous and continuous firing of a group of firearms on command. It stems from the French word ''fusil'', meaning firearm, and ''fusiller'' meaning to shoot. In the context of military tactics, the term is generally used ...

of shots. The seeds are globose with a chartaceous testa.

Wood and toxicity

Despite it being prone to

heart-rot In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay of wood at the center of the trunk and branches. Fungi enter the tree through wounds in the bark and decay the heartwood. The diseased heartwood softens, making trees structurally wea ...

, it is prized in the

furniture Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...

industry for its beautiful, dense and durable

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

, which is reddish-brown with darker streaks, a satin-like lustre and extremely fragrant sweet, spicy smell. The underbark exudes a white, poisonous

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...

when freshly cut, and campfires that burn tamboti fuel give off noxious fumes contaminating meat or other food grilled on the open flames or coals. The latex is used as a

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

poison, is applied to arrow-tips and is used as a

purgative Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation. Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...

by indigenous tribes.

Jumping beans

The fruits while green are frequently parasitised by the small grey

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

Emporia melanobasis ''Emporia melanobasis'' is a species of snout moth in the genus '' Emporia''. It was described by Boris Balinsky in 1991, and is known from South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, ...

'' (

Pyralidae The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyr ...

Phycitinae The Phycitinae are a subfamily of snout moths (family (biology), family Pyralidae). Even though the Pyralidae subfamilies are all quite diverse, Phycitinae stand out even by standards of their family: with over 600 genera considered valid and mor ...

). Larvae develop within the growing fruits which show no external damage. When the fruits are mature each splits into 3 cocci. The larvae jack-knife inside the fallen segments, causing them to move about erratically and vigorously, to the surprise of the uninitiated. This has led to the name "jumping bean tree". The

Mexican jumping bean Mexican jumping beans () are seed pods that have been inhabited by the larva of a small moth ('' Cydia saltitans'') and are native to Mexico. The pod is usually tan to brown. They are from the shrub '' Sebastiania pavoniana'', often also referr ...

, ''

Sebastiania ''Sebastiania'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae first described in 1821. It is native to North and South America from Arizona and the West Indies south to Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of ...

sp.'', also belongs to the family

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

and is parasitised by the moth ''

Cydia saltitans ''Cydia saltitans'' or jumping bean moth is a moth from Mexico that is most widely known as its larva, where it inhabits the carpels of seeds from several related shrubby trees, mainly ''Sebastiania pavoniana'' or ''Sapium biloculare'' (Synony ...

''.

Gallery

Spirostachys africana, lower, Skrikfontein, a.jpg, ''S. africana'' foliage File:Spirostachys africana capsule.JPG, fruit capsule or

Spiafr01.jpg, fruit and fruit segments or

s Spiafr03.jpg, mericarp with ''Emporia melanobasis'' larva Spiafr12a.jpg, Wood Spiafr05a.jpg, Log with heart-rot

References

*''Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa'' - John Mitchell Watt & Maria Gerdina Breyer-Brandwyk (E&S Livingstone 1962) * {{Taxonbar, from=Q7578203 Hippomaneae Trees of South Africa Flora of Mozambique Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder

Description

Wood and toxicity

Jumping beans

Gallery

See also

References