Nuxia floribunda       4576

This is a shrub or tree, 2-25m high. The trunk is 10-60cm in diameter. The bark is rough, grey or grey-brown, fissured. The wood is white or pale yellow, hard, close-grained. The branches are pale grey-brown, with finely longitudinally fissured bark which peels off, with raised leaf cushions. The branchlets are glabrous or minutely pubescent with glandular hairs and glabrescent, sulcate.

The leaves are ternate, opposite, decussate, or occasionally in a few lateral branchlets alternate, mostly distinctly petiolate. The petiole is 3-55mm long, glabrous or minutely pubescent. The blade is coriaceous or papyraceous, elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or nearly so, 2.5-4 x as long as wide, 4-16 x 1-7cm, acuminate or less often acute at the apex, cuneate at the base or decurrent into the petiole which is sometimes partly winged, dentate, crenate, or entire, glabrous or with very minute scattered glandular hairs on both sides. The venation is often reticulate, more or less prominent on both sides.

The inflorescence is lax or sometimes only in the ultimate ramifications congested, mostly large, paniculate or seemingly umbellate, 4-32 x 4-25cm, 4-9 times branched. The branches are often greenish or creamy, glabrous or minutely pubescent with glandular hairs. The flowers are fragrant, pedicellate or sessile, solitary or in clusters of three together, subtended by several minute bracts or bracteoles which are about 0.5-1mm long and triangular. The calyx is creamy or green, often viscid, 2.5-3.8mm long, minutely pubescent with glandular hairs outside, inside sparsely and/or minutely appressed-pubescent. The tube is about 3-5 x as long as the lobes which are equal or unequal, triangular or broadly triangular, 0.6-1.2 x 0.6-1.2mm, acute or less often obtuse, entire or sometimes tridentate. Sometimes two lobes coherent or partly united. The corolla is white, outside with some minute glandular hairs at the base of the lobes and at the apex of the tube (less often on almost the entire tube), inside with a ring of slightly recurved rather thick hairs at the base of the lobes and pubescent with glandular hairs in the tube of which extreme base is glabrous. The tube is slightly shorter than the calyx. The lobes are oblong, about as long as the tube, 1.8-3.3 x as long as wide, 1.8-2.2 x 0.6-1mm, acute, obtuse, or rounded at the apex. The filaments are white, kneed and there pilose-pubescent just above the base, and at the extreme base pubescent with glandular hairs, as the latter is situated within the zone of glandular hairs at the innerside of the corolla, after the pollen is shed, 2-3.8mm long. The anthers are white, turning pale brown, about 0.5-0.6mm long. The pistil is 3-6.5mm long. The ovary is subglobose or nearly obcordoid, mostly laterally compressed, 1 x 0.7 x 0.5 - 1.5 x 1.3 x 1mm, glabrous or occasionally with a few hairs at the apex. The style is white, glabrous, 2-4.5mm long. The stigma is small, capitate.

The capsule is brown, mostly conspicuously longer than the calyx, nearly obovoid, 3-5 x 1.3-2 x 1.3-2mm, glabrous, retuse and with two impressed lines of dehiscence at the apex. The seeds are 0.8-0.9 x 0.2mm.

The wood is a pale yellow, is close-grained and is hard and heavy. As a result it is used for fencing and general carpentry, as well as for furniture, turnery and fuel and previously in the construction of wagons. It is becoming an increasingly popular garden subject, noted for its conspicuous flowers and shapely crown and, with a growing number of plantsmen now offering the species for sale, its economic value is on the increase too.

Medicinal plant
The leaves are recorded being used to treat coughs, colds, influenza, fevers, indigestion, infantile convulsions as well as in rituals.

References
- Flora of Southern Africa, L.E. Codd, B. De Winter And H.B. Rycroft. Vol. 26 pag. 156. Address
- PlantZafrica, Jan-Hakon Burring. Kirstenbosch NBG 2004. Nuxia floribunda
- The Loganiaceae of Africa: A revision of Nuxia Lam., Leeuwenberg, Antonius Josephus M. 1975. Address
- Useful Tropical Plants. Nuxia floribunda

- Flora of Southern Africa, L.E. Codd, B. De Winter And H.B. Rycroft. Vol. 26 pag. 150-159. Address
- The Loganiaceae of Africa: A revision of Nuxia Lam., Leeuwenberg, Antonius Josephus M. 1975. Address

Biological type: tree
Frost resistance: 25ºF
Leaf color: dark green
Flower color: white
IUCN Red List of threatened species status: Least Concern

Specifications for the Mediterranean basin
Adult size (h x w): 32,8ft x 32,8ft
Sun exposure: part sun (Sun hours: >3h <6h
Foliage: semi-evergreen
Growth: fast
Flowering time from October until February

Specific information for our garden
Planting substrate: 40%Compost+20%Peet+40%Sand
Plant watering: 3x a week pH 5.5
Logical sequence of containers for: Trees; forestry plate 8cm, forestry pot 3L, container 6L, container 55L, container 110L, container 240L
Propagation is done by cuttings

Ecology in its country of origin
Rainfall: 600-1200mm

SPRING Sow the seeds on the surface of 30%Compost+30%Coco+40%Sand at >77°F. During germination keep the substrate moist and in daylight. The seeds germinate in 6-12 weeks. The results are erratic.
The average seed weight is 100000,0 per gram (0,00001g).

Germination references
- PlantZafrica, Jan-Hakon Burring. Kirstenbosch NBG 2004. Nuxia floribunda