Sparrmannia africana L.f.
Small tree to c. 6 m high, sometimes a low spreading shrub, densely hairy or bristly tomentose on young shoots and young infl.; hairs usually simple or with 2-3 branches, rarely obviously stellate. Petioles 4-14 cm long. Stipules 5-12 mm long, subulate, brown, scarious. Lamina 10-18-(28) × 7-14-(23) cm, broad-ovate, densely hairy beneath, less hairy above, serrate-dentate, usually shallowly 5-7-lobed, sometimes simple on flowering shoots; base deeply cordate; apex acuminate. Peduncles > petioles. Cymes with slender pedicels to 4 cm long, densely clothed in patent white hairs. Sepals 5-12 mm long (longer in cultivated plants), oblong-ovate, caducous, densely clothed in patent white hairs. Petals 10-15 mm long, white with yellow base; the outer (true petals) obovate; the inner (petaloid stamens) often with purple streaks, narrow, numerous. Stamens mostly petaloid, sometimes a few moniliform; base of filaments yellow, upper parts purple. Capsule globose, with copious bristles, not developing properly.
S.: only known from a cliff behind Port Nelson.
South Africa 1983
Established in scrub.
FL Apr-Oct.
S. africana is occasionally cultivated in warmer parts of N.Z. Only the double cv. 'Flore Pleno' is wild and this has many of the stamens petaloid to varying degrees from those almost as large as true petals to those represented by only a narrow undulate strip. The transformation of the outer stamens into petals involves the loss of both their characteristic moniliform structure and their peculiar sensitivity which results in a rapid outward movement when touched. Also, the ordinarily single form in cultivation has petals twice as large as those of the double form. The general habit, lf shape, appearance of the fls (in the single form), as well as the frs, bear a strong resemblance to the endemic Entelea arborescens R. Br., whau.
