Gaertnera paniculata (PROTA)

In Nigeria the wood is made into pestles and small canoes. In DR Congo the stems are used in house construction. The wood is also used as firewood and for making charcoal. In Gabon young stems are woven into baskets used for catching fish. The roots and young shoots are sometimes eaten. In Nigeria the foliage is browsed by goats. Bees collect the nectar for honey. In traditional medicine in Congo, a root decoction is taken for the regulation of tachycardia and a bark decoction for the treatment of cough and chest pain, while the leaf pulp is rubbed in for the treatment of rheumatism and the leaves are eaten against fever. The plant has ornamental value.

Properties

The wood is reddish. The roots, bark and leaves contain saponin.

Description

Evergreen shrub or small tree up to 9 m tall; bole low-branching, up to 30 cm in diameter, occasionally more; twigs glabrous or short hairy. Leaves opposite, simple and entire; stipules with 1–2 cm long tube and 4 lobes c. 1 mm long, caducous; petiole 0.5–1.5 cm long; blade elliptical to elliptical-oblong or oblanceolate, 8–18 cm × 3–9 cm, base cuneate to obtuse, apex acuminate, papery or thinly leathery, glabrous or main veins short-hairy beneath, pinnately veined with 3–8 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence a terminal cyme or panicle up to 30 cm long, strongly branched, many-flowered; peduncle up to 8 cm long, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, heterostylous, usually sweetly fragrant, nearly sessile; calyx cup-shaped, up to 2 mm long, with triangular lobes up to 1 mm long; corolla white or greenish, densely hairy outside, tube funnel-shaped and 2.5–4 mm long, lobes strap-shaped to linear and 1.5–2.5 mm long; stamens inserted beneath the throat of the corolla tube, with short filaments; ovary superior, 2-celled, style slender, 1.5–2 mm long or 6–7 mm long, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a globose drupe 6–9 mm in diameter, indehiscent, violet, purple or blue when mature, 1(–2)-seeded. Seed broadly ovoid, 4 mm × 3 mm, obscurely grooved.

Other botanical information

In Benin Gaertnera paniculata flowers in September–December and fruits in January–April.

Gaertnera comprises about 70 species and occurs in tropical Africa, Asia and Australia. There are 12 species in tropical Africa.

Ecology

Gaertnera paniculata occurs from sea-level up to 1700 m altitude in the understorey of evergreen and moist deciduous forest, also in gallery forest, in primary as well as secondary forest where it may be abundant, often in forest edges and near rivers.

Genetic resources

Gaertnera paniculata is not threatened with genetic erosion, as it has a wide distribution and is locally common.

Prospects

Gaertnera paniculata has a wide range of local uses, being a source of timber, fuel, food, fodder, weaving material and medicine. However, information on its properties is lacking almost entirely, and therefore it is not possible to indicate whether the species will become more important for any of these uses in the future. Its value as a timber tree is restricted by the small size of the bole.

Major references

Burkill, H.M., 1997. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Families M–R. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 969 pp.

Figueiredo, E., 2005. The Rubiaceae of São Tomé e Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea): taxonomy and conservation. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 149: 85–114.

Latham, P., 2004. Useful plants of Bas-Congo province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. DFID, London, United Kingdom. 320 pp.

Malcomber, S.T. & Taylor, C.M., 2009. A systematic revision of Gaertnera (Rubiaceae, Gaertnereae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 96(4): 575–671.

Verdcourt, B., 1989. Rubiaceae (Rubioideae). In: Launert, E. (Editor). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 5, part 1. Flora Zambesiaca Managing Committee, London, United Kingdom. 210 pp.

Other references

Akoègninou, A., van der Burg, W.J. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (Editors), 2006. Flore analytique du Bénin. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. 1034 pp.

Aubréville, A., 1959. La flore forestière de la Côte d’Ivoire. Deuxième édition révisée. Tome troisième. Publication No 15. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 334 pp.

Hawthorne, W. & Jongkind, C., 2006. Woody plants of western African forests: a guide to the forest trees, shrubs and lianes from Senegal to Ghana. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 1023 pp.

Hepper, F.N. & Keay, R.W.J., 1963. Rubiaceae. In: Hepper, F.N. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. Volume 2. 2nd Edition. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 104–223.

Irvine, F.R., 1961. Woody plants of Ghana, with special reference to their uses. Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom. 868 pp.

Neuwinger, H.D., 2000. African traditional medicine: a dictionary of plant use and applications. Medpharm Scientific, Stuttgart, Germany. 589 pp.

Nkeoua, G. & Boundzanga, G.C., 1999. Données sur les produits forestiers non ligneux en République du Congo. FAO, Brazzaville, Congo. 125 pp.

Raponda-Walker, A. & Sillans, R., 1961. Les plantes utiles du Gabon. Paul Lechevalier, Paris, France. 614 pp.

Author(s)

M. Brink, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Brink, M., 2012. Gaertnera paniculata Benth. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.

Accessed 22 April 2026.

See the Prota4U database.