Unidentified plants
From time to time, we find (or are given pictures of) plants that we cannot identify. On this page we show a selection of such species and request help with their identification.
Please email either Bart Wursten (ndundu[at]zol.co.zw) or myself, Mark Hyde (mahyde[at]gmail.com). Any suggestions will be gratefully received and will be acknowledged on the site.
Plants which have been identified will also be retained on this page for a while.
Unidentified plant reference number: 5 Identification status: Unidentified
Images: Click on each image to see a larger version
Photo(s): Unknown Lamiaceae - ?Hemizygia
Notes:
Photographed by Bart Wursten at Malilangwe in southern Zimbabwe.Discussion:
Unidentified plant reference number: 4 Identification status: Unidentified
Images: Click on each image to see a larger version
Photo(s): Lamiaceae: possibly Aeollanthus neglectus?
Notes:
Photographed by Bart Wursten at Malilangwe in southern Zimbabwe.Discussion:
Unidentified plant reference number: 3 Identification status: Unidentified
Images: Click on each image to see a larger version
Photo(s): Unknown plant
Notes:
This species was photographed in Zambia on 23 Sep 2008 by Helen Pickering in a shady and wet habitat at the edge of the spray zone, Victoria Falls.Thought at first to be an Asclepiadaceae but this is now thought to be incorrect. Possibly a Celastraceae?
Discussion:
Unidentified plant reference number: 2 Identification status: Identified
Images: Click on each image to see a larger version
Photo(s): Plectranthus sp.
Notes:
This unknown Plectranthus was photographed in the Chimanimani Mountains (Mozambique side) by Stefaan Dondeyne.Discussion:
Identified as Plectranthus caudatus S. Moore, a Chimanimani endemic.
Unidentified plant reference number: 1 Identification status: Identified
Images: Click on each image to see a larger version
Photo(s): Ipomoea (?) sp. with palmate leaves
Notes:
Photographed on 19 November 2008 near Livingstone in Zambia by Helen Pickering.The following details are known about the location and habitat:
- Quarter degree square: 1725D4
- Lat. and long: 25 46'E 17 46'S Grid Ref: LL704320
- Habitat: Kalahari sands in open sunny situation.
Discussion:
Identified by Alex Dreyer as Ipomoea bolusiana Schinz
Examination of material of I. bolusiana at BR and SRGH shows that this plant does not have the typical appearance of this species; this plant has almost perfect palmate leaves, whereas mostly the leaves have an undivided portion and are lobed. However, some specimens seen do have this feature. Certainly, this is the best match that we have.
Unidentified plant reference number: 0 Identification status: Identified
Images: Click on each image to see a larger version
Photo(s): Unknown cultivated plant. Nhambita, Gorongosa, Mozambique. Photographed by Meg Coates Palgrave, 13 July 2009
Notes:
This plant is a small cultivated tree. The leaves appear to be 1-pinnate. Fruits are present and are flattened with prominent venation, slightly translucent when held up to the light, with a single seed.Discussion:
This was kindly identified by Dr Daniel H. Janzen as Ateleia herbert-smithii Pittier
In an email dated 14 October 2009, Dr Janzen commented as follows:
"It is native (apparently), to Colombia - now extinct there,
apparently, to northwestern Costa Rica (where there is a healthy
population in Sector Santa Rosa of Area de Conservacion Guanacaste),
and Pacific Nicaragua (probably nearly gone now).
The seed for the
plant in Mozambique (and other old world tropical sites, such as
southern India) probably originated in the Oxford Forestry Institute
who was giving away packets of them for growing firewood trees, seed
source a small village in Pacific coastal Nicaragua.
The tree is wind-pollinated and dioecious and has the potential to be
a horrible weed tree in heavily disturbed tropical dry forest
anywhere. Unless you want to add it to your flora, kill it, now.
It is "controlled" in its native habitat by a seed-predator weevil
that kills nearly all the seeds in each generation."