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Ziziphus lotus

(African Jujube)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Arabic:

Sedra

Common Names in English:

African Jujube, Lote Fruit, Lotus, Lotus Jujube, Lotus Tree, Lotustree

Common Names in French:

Jujubier Berbère, Jujubier De Berbérie, Jujubier Sauvage

Common Names in German:

Wilde Jujube

Common Names in Portuguese:

Acufeifa-Menor

Common Names in Spanish:

Azufaifo, Azufaifo Africano, Azufaifo Ibérico

Description

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Family Rhamnaceae

Deciduous or evergreen , often thorny trees , shrubs , woody climbers , or lianas, rarely herbs. Leaves simple , petiolate , alternate or opposite, pinnately veined or 3-5-veined, entire to serrate, sometimes much reduced; stipules small, caducous or persistent , sometimes transformed into spines. Flowers yellowish to greenish, rarely brightly colored , small, bisexual or unisexual , rarely polygamous, (4 or) 5-merous, hypogynous to epigynous , in mostly axillary , sessile or pedunculate cymes, or reduced to few in fascicles. Calyx tube patelliform or hemispherical to tubular , sometimes absent, at rim with calyx, corolla, and stamens; sepals 4 or 5, valvate in bud, triangular, erect or ± recurved during anthesis , adaxially often distinctly keeled , alternate with petals. Petals 4 or 5, rarely absent, usually smaller than sepals, concave or hooded , rarely nearly flat, often shortly clawed. Stamens 4 or 5, antepetalous and often ± enclosed by petals; filaments thin, adnate to bases of petals; anthers minute, versatile or not, 2(or 4) -celled, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, usually introrse . Disk intrastaminal , nectariferous , thin to ± fleshy , entire or lobed , glabrous or rarely pubescent , free from ovary or tightly surrounding it, or adnate to calyx tube. Ovary superior to inferior, (1 or) 2-4-loculed, with 1(or 2) ovules per locule; ovules anatropous , basal and erect; styles simple or ± deeply 3-lobed or 3-cleft. Fruit either an indehiscent, rarely explosively dehiscent , sometimes winged , schizocarpic capsule, or a ± fleshy drupe with 1-4 indehiscent, rarely dehiscent, pyrenes (stones ) . Seeds with thin, oily albumen, sometimes exalbuminous ; embryo large, oily, straight or rarely bent.

About 50 genera and more than 900 species: almost cosmopolitan , mainly in subtropical to tropical areas; 13 genera and 137 species (82 endemic, one introduced ) in China.

Former classifications usually placed Rhamnaceae in the Rhamnales, together with Vitaceae and Leeaceae (Suessenguth in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam., ed. 2, 20d. 1953), or together with Elaeagnaceae (Thorne, Bot. Rev. 58: 225-348. 1992) . Orders such as Celastrales, Urticales, and Euphorbiales have often been considered as closely related groups. Recent analyses of DNA sequences strongly supported including the family in the Rosales, beside the closest relatives Barbeyaceae and Dirachmaceae (see Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 141: 399-436. 2003) . Suessenguth (loc. cit. ) grouped the family into five tribes , mainly characterized by fruit characters. Richardson et al. (Kew Bull . 55: 311-340. 2000; Amer. J. Bot. 87: 1309-1324. 2000) revised this tribal classification on the basis of a phylogenetic analysis using rbcL and trnL-F sequences of the plastid genome. Now 11 tribes are recognized, of which four are represented in the Flora area.



The bark , leaves, and fruit of several species of Rhamnus have been used as laxatives , notably R. cathartica and R. frangula. Diverse Old World species of Rhamnus provide yellow and green dyes as well as drugs. Timber of Alphitonia, Colubrina, Hovenia, and Ziziphus species is used for construction, fine furniture, carving, lathework, and musical instruments. Many Ziziphus species yield edible fruit; among them, Z. jujuba (Chinese jujube) and Z. mauritiana (Indian jujube) are cultivated on a commercial scale. Hovenia dulcis is also grown for its edible, fleshy inflorescence stalks . Species of Hovenia, Paliurus, and Rhamnus are cultivated as ornamentals .[1]

Genus Ziziphus

Shrubs or small to medium-sized trees , erect or straggling, often climbing , evergreen or deciduous, often spinose . Leaves alternate, petiolate , distinctly triplinerved or rarely pinnately veined; stipules usually transformed into 1 or 2, erect or ± recurved spines. Flowers yellow-green, small, bisexual , in axillary corymblike cymes, or axillary or terminal thyrses . Calyx tube shallow, patelliform to hemispherical. Sepals ovate-triangular or triangular, adaxially ± distinctly keeled . Petals clawed, obovate or spatulate , rarely absent. Disk shallow, fleshy , 5-10-lobed. Ovary superior, globose , 2- or 3(or 4) -loculed; style ± deeply branched, 2(-4) -fid. Fruit a single-stoned, (1 or) 2- or 3-loculed, globose or oblong drupe, base with persistent calyx tube, apex mucronulate ; mesocarp fleshy or soft corky; endocarp cartilaginous or woody, locules 1-seeded. Seeds without endosperm or rarely with endosperm; cotyledon thickening.

About 100 species: mainly in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia and the Americas, a few species in Africa and temperate regions ; 12 species (six endemic) in China.[2]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 891 meters (0 to 2,923 feet).[3]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Encycl. 3:317. 1789

Name verified on 09-Mar-1995 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 02-Nov-2006

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Ziziphus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 288 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

Z. abyssinica · Z. abyssinicus · Z. acidojujuba · Z. acidojujuba f. granulata · Z. acidojujuba f. infecunda · Z. acidojujuba f. trachysperma · Z. acuminata · Z. acutifolia · Z. adelensis · Z. affinis · Z. africana · Z. agrestis · Z. albens · Z. allemaovii · Z. amole · Z. amphibia · Z. andamanica · Z. angolito · Z. angulata · Z. angustifolia · Z. angustifolius · Z. apetala · Z. arborea · Z. atacorensis · Z. attoensis · Z. attopensis · Z. aubletii · Z. aucheri · Z. baclei · Z. baenchia · Z. baguirmiae · Z. bhunder · Z. bidens · Z. borneenis · Z. borneensis · Z. brunoniana · Z. bubalina · Z. bullata · Z. bulusanensis · Z. buraea · Z. burmanniana · Z. calophylla · Z. cambodiana · Z. cambodianus · Z. capensis · Z. caracutta · Z. celata (Florida Ziziphus) · Z. celtidifolia · Z. chinensis · Z. chloroxylon · Z. chloroxylum · Z. cinnamomum · Z. colombiana · Z. commutata · Z. cotinifolia · Z. crebivenosa · Z. crebrivenosa · Z. crenata · Z. cumingiana · Z. cuneata · Z. cupularis · Z. cyclocardia · Z. dalanta · Z. divaricata · Z. djsmuensis · Z. domingensis · Z. elegans · Z. elliptica · Z. elmeri · Z. emarginata · Z. endlichii · Z. esquirolii · Z. exserta · Z. ferruginea · Z. fibrillosus · Z. flavescens · Z. flexuosa · Z. floribunda · Z. forbesii · Z. fungii · Z. funiculosa · Z. gardenii · Z. gardneri · Z. glaberrima · Z. glabra · Z. glabrata · Z. glaziovii · Z. globularis · Z. grisebachiana · Z. guaranitica · Z. guatemalensis · Z. hajarensis · Z. hamosa · Z. hamur · Z. harmandiana · Z. harmandii · Z. havanensis · Z. havanensis var. bullata · Z. heguertii · Z. helvola

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 15, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Yilin Chen & Carsten Schirarend "Rhamnaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 115,355. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Ziziphus". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 115, 116, 119. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Mean = 460.070 meters (1,509.416 feet), Standard Deviation = 309.400 based on 246 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/2/2009