Crateva kirkii
species of flowering plant
Crateva kirkii, commonly known as the three-finger bush, is a small deciduous tree belonging to the Capparaceae or caper family. It ranges through eastern and southern Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, and KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
The species is named after Sir John Kirk (1832-1922), David Livingstone's companion on his Zambezi expedition of 1858 and the first European collector of the plant near Tete in Mozambique. It was formerly placed in genus Cladostemon (klados - a branch, stemon - a stamen).
Description
Crateva kirki has leaves that are trifoliolate with obovate leaflets that are glabrous with a thin texture and a common petiole up to 200 mm long. Twigs and branches are flexible and herbaceous.
The fragrant inflorescences are terminal or axillary, greenish at first, then white with pink venation, and finally turn yellow with age. The individual flowers are asymmetric, the two upper petals being much larger than the lower. The 15 cm long stamens are fused for most of their length, forming an androphore.
The large pendulous fruits are gourd-shaped, have a leathery texture and are up to 12 cm in diameter, hang from long, thick, sharply bent, jointed stalks, and give off an odour repulsive to humans on being picked.
The public source identifies “Crateva kirkii” as species of flowering plant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Crateva, kirkii and species.
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This entry incorporates text from “Crateva kirkii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.