Osyris compressa
| Osyris compressa | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Core eudicots |
| Order: | Santalales |
| Family: | Santalaceae |
| Genus: | Osyris |
| Species: | O. compressa |
| Binomial name | |
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Osyris compressa (P.J.Bergius) A.DC |
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Osyris compressa (Cape sumach or pruimbos) is a facultatively hemiparasitic, mainly South African plant of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae. Until recently, the favoured binomial name was Colpoon compressum, but around 2001, the genus Colpoon was included in Osyris on the basis of comparative DNA studies. That assignment is not final, however, and according to the Kew Gardens plant list, Colpoon compressum P.J.Bergius, though still in review, is the accepted name.
Cape sumach is a shrub or small tree of up to 5 m tall, though a more typical size for a plant growing in the open would be 2 to 3 m. The leaves are opposite, decussate, blue-green with a greyish bloom, elliptical, smooth, stiff, typically about 20-50 mm long, with thickened, entire margins. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle, bearing small, slightly fragrant, bisexual flowers. The flowers are creamy-green and unspectacular, but they appear through much of the year, attracting pollinating insects of various types. The ovary has four ovules, but the fruit is a single-seeded drupe, a prolate spheroid in shape. It is about 15 to 25 mm long and perhaps 10 to 15 mm across. The drupe is fleshy with a smooth skin crowned with the perianth lobes in a ring around its tip. Usually by the time the fruit is ripe, a circular groove is all that remains of the perianth. The fruit are colourful, progressing first from greenish blue to bright red, and then to glossy purple or black as they ripen; they mature at different rates, so the successive colours can be quite showy in combination.
The species is mainly South African, occurring from the coastal fynbos in the region of the Cape Peninsula in the west, along the south coast and north into tropical East Africa.
O. compressa is a tough and adaptable plant. It can withstand frost, heat and winds. It grows fast and survives in poor, sandy soils, even in coastal dunes, where it may play a significant role as a windbreak and in binding sand. Being monoecious, and with bisexual flowers, and both cross-pollinating and self-fertile, the species produces fertile seeds prolifically. It begins to bear fruit when quite young, and it seeds plentifully practically throughout the year. The fruit attracts a range of birds and mammals that spread the seed effectively.
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Wikipedia