Cola baldwinnii
Sterculiaceae
Habit
Tree
Fern
No
Predominant Habitat
Geographic Distribution
IUCN Red-List
Synonyms
Rank
Taxon
Literature
Vouchers
Common Name(s)
Notes
A new understorey tree species of high forest from central Liberia to southeastern Guinée (âGuinée Forestièreâ) and eastern Sierra Leone. Tree up to 5 m high and 25 cm diameter. Leaves alternate, entire, often crowded at the end of a shoot; petiole 0.3 -10 cm long, pulvinate at both ends, often with remnants of dense stellate indumentum; leaf blade simple, obovate to elliptic, 2 – 29 cm long and 1 -10 cm wide, coriaceous, glabrous above and below, midrib raised above and below, 6 -10 pair of main lateral nerves, tertiary nervation reticulate below; base attenuate to rounded but usually very arrowly so; apex acuminate. Stipules up to 7 mm long, subulate. Flowers not yet seen. Fruits ripening amongst the leaves, young fruits with a thin but closed layer of pale hairs, mature fruit indehiscent, red, with easy to remove, open, dark-brownish, stellate indumentum, 2 to 11 follicles; follicles almost round in cross-section, 3 -4 × 2 × 2 cm, with usually inconspicuous beak and slightly ridged suture line; stipe 5 -16 mm long, flattened; 5 -7 seeds, succulent testa white on the outside and very dark on the inside. Note: The strong differences in blade size and petiole length within an individual branchlet evidently keep the leaves at the end of a shoot from being shaded by one another