brachystegia
{{Short description|Genus of legumes}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Brachystegia tamarindoides00.jpg
| image_caption = Brachystegia tamarindoides
| display_parents = 2
| taxon = Brachystegia
| authority = Benth. (1865)
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = 32; see text
|subdivision_ref = [https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:21846-1 Brachystegia Benth.] Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
}}
Brachystegia is a genus of tree of the subfamily Detarioideae that is native to tropical Africa.
Trees of the genus are commonly known as miombo, and are dominant in the miombo woodlands of central and southern tropical Africa. The Zambezian region is the centre of diversity for the genus.Emmanuel N. Chidumayo and Davison J. Gumbo, eds. (2010). The dry forests and woodlands of Africa: managing for products and services. Earthscan, 2010.
Description
Hybridisation between the species occurs and taxa show considerable variation in leaflet size, shape and number, making identification difficult.
New leaves show a great range of red colours when immature, later turning to various shades of green.
Range and habitat
Brachystegia species range from coastal West Africa through Nigeria and Central Africa to the Northern Province of South Africa.
Habitats include seasonally dry forest, woodland, wooded grassland and bushland, and lowland tropical rain forest, often along rivers, the margins of wetlands, and on upland plateaus. Some species form monodominant stands.
18 species are native to Zambezian woodland. Six grow in Guineo–Congolian forest, with six in west-central Africa and 1 in West Africa. One species grows in the Zanzibar–Inhambane coastal forests of eastern Mozambique.
{{See also|Miombo|Miombo woodlands}}
Species
32 species are currently accepted:
{{Div col}}
- Brachystegia allenii {{small|Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – Tanzania, DR Congo, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe
- Brachystegia angustistipulata {{small|De Wild.}} – Tanzania and southern DR Congo
- Brachystegia appendiculata {{small|Benth.}} – Malawi
- Brachystegia astlei {{small|Hoyle}} – Zambia
- Brachystegia bakeriana {{small|Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – southeastern Angola and Zambia
- Brachystegia bequaertii {{small|De Wild.}} – southern DR Congo
- Brachystegia boehmii {{small|Taub.}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Angola, Botswana, and Mozambique
- Brachystegia bournei {{small|Greenway}} – Zambia
- Brachystegia bussei {{small|Harms}} – DR Congo and Tanzania to Zimbabwe and Mozambique
- Brachystegia cynometroides {{small|Harms}} – Cameroon and southwestern Central African Republic
- Brachystegia eurycoma {{small|Harms}} Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon
- Brachystegia floribunda {{small|Benth.}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique
- Brachystegia glaberrima {{small|R.E.Fr.}} – Tanzania, DR Congo, and Zambia
- Brachystegia gossweileri {{small|Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – DR Congo, Angola, and Zambia
- Brachystegia kennedyi {{small|Hoyle}} – southern Nigeria and Cameroon
- Brachystegia laurentii {{small|(De Wild.) Louis ex J.Léonard}} – Cameroon, Gabon, and DR Congo
- Brachystegia leonensis {{small|Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire
- Brachystegia letestui {{small|De Wild.}} – southern DR Congo
- Brachystegia longifolia {{small|Benth.}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique
- Brachystegia lujae {{small|De Wild. ex Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – DR Congo
- Brachystegia manga {{small|De Wild.}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Angola, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique
- Brachystegia michelmorei {{small|Hoyle}} – Zambia
- Brachystegia mildbraedii {{small|Harms}} – Cameroon and Gabon
- Brachystegia nigerica {{small|Hoyle and A.P.D.Jones}} – Nigeria
- Brachystegia oblonga {{small|Sim}} – northeastern Mozambique
- Brachystegia puberula {{small|Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – Tanzania, DR Congo, Zambia, and Angola
- Brachystegia russelliae {{small|I.M.Johnst.}} southern DR Congo, Angola, and Zambia
- Brachystegia spiciformis {{small|Benth.}} – southeastern Kenya and DR Congo to Angola and Northern Province of South Africa
- Brachystegia stipulata {{small|De Wild.}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Zambia and Mozambique
- Brachystegia tamarindoides {{small|Welw. ex Benth.}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Angola, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique
- Brachystegia taxifolia {{small|Harms}} Tanzania, DR Congo, Malawi, and Zambia
- Brachystegia utilis {{small|Hutch. & Burtt Davy}} – Tanzania and DR Congo to Angola, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique
- Brachystegia × weltwitschii {{small|Taub.}} – Angola
{{Div col end}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- {{Wikispecies-inline}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q135604}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Flora of the Afrotropical realm
Category:Taxa named by George Bentham
{{Detarioideae-stub}}