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Common Tree: Wild Pomegranate
National Tree Number: 688
Botanical name: Burchellia bubalina
Other names: Wildegranaat, isiGolwane, umFincane
Description:
Shrub or small evergreen tree 3 to 5m in height but occasionally reaching 10m.
The Wild pomegranate is widely propagated as ornamental garden tree for it is attractive at all times and beautiful when in flower. Although slow growing, it is easily propagated from seed or cuttings. The showy flowers of the tree (which appear from September to December) contain copious amounts of nectar, and are pollinated by birds. The genus Burchellia was named after the traveller and botanist, William Burchell.
The bark is grey, mottled, smooth. The leaves are broadly ovate, 50-180 x 25-80 mm, glossy dark green. The flowers are orange to dark red in colour, tubular in shape and occurring in dense terminal clusters. The fruit is urn-shaped, rather leathery, about 1 to 1.5cm long, reddish-green to brownish, crowned with persistent horn-like enlarged calyx lobes. The wood is hard, dense and closed-grained.
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(photograph: NBI/DWAF) |
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Uses:
The roots provide an infusion which is taken as an emetic and used as a body-wash. The wood is used for hut-building and the making of agricultural implements. The wild pomegranate has become increasingly popular as a small ornamental garden tree.
Distribution:
It occurs in the high rainfall areas of the eastern parts of the country, mainly in evergreen lowland to montane forest and at the margins of forest, but occasionally also in woodland, grassland in rocky outcrops and also in swamp areas. |
