Haplocoelum foliolosum (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa
Introduction


General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fruit
Carbohydrate / starch
Medicinal
Timber
Fibre
Food security

File:Map Haplocoelum foliolosum.gif

distribution in Africa (wild)

Haplocoelum foliolosum (Hiern) Bullock

Protologue: Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1931: 356 (1931).

Family: Sapindaceae

Synonyms

Haplocoelum gallaense (Engl.) Radlk. (1916),
Haplocoelum mombasense Bullock (1931).

Vernacular names

Galla plum, northern galla plum (En).

Origin and geographic distribution

Haplocoelum foliolosum is distributed from Cameroun east to southern Ethiopia and Somalia, and south to Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

Uses

The wood of Haplocoelum foliolosum is used in East Africa for construction, furniture and tool handles. The fruit is eaten. The flowers are an important source of nectar for honey bees. In Kenya leaf decoctions are used as eye lotion. The twigs are used as toothbrushes.

Properties

The wood is reddish and very hard.

Description

Deciduous, dioecious shrub or small tree up to 15(–25) m tall; bark smooth, grey; branchlets grey-brown to black, short-hairy.
Leaves alternate, paripinnately compound with 2–16 pairs of leaflets; stipules absent; petiole 0.5–1.5 cm long, rachis 2–10 cm long, narrowly winged; petiolules up to 0.5 mm long; leaflets opposite, oblong to elliptical, 1.5–6 cm × 0.5–1 cm, cuneate to obtuse and asymmetrical at base, usually notched at apex, glabrous or sparsely hairy on midrib, pinnately veined with numerous closely spaced lateral veins.
Inflorescence an axillary fascicle or cyme.
Flowers unisexual, regular, white to yellowish; pedicel 1–3 mm long in male flowers, 5–10 mm in female flowers; sepals 5, oblong, c. 2 mm long, short hairy; petals absent; stamens 4–5, free, filaments 2–5 mm long; ovary superior, ovoid to rounded, 3-celled, style up to 1 mm long, 3-fid; male flowers without ovary, female flowers with rudimentary stamens.
Fruit an ovoid to nearly globose capsule 1.5–2 cm × 1–1.5 cm, yellow to red-purple when ripe, indehiscent or irregularly rupturing, 1–2-seeded.
Seeds ellipsoid, flattened, 1–1.5 cm × c. 0.5 cm, brown, covered by a thin, fleshy aril.

Other botanical information

Trees usually flower before new leaves develop.

Haplocoelum foliolosum shows a lot of variation. Three subspecies have been distinguished, mainly based on the number of leaflets per leaf, but a large part of the variation seems to be caused by growing conditions. At 1850 m altitude on Mount Mulanje in Malawi, it can be a tree up to 25 m tall, but at lower altitudes it is often a straggling shrub or small tree of only 3–4 m in height.

Haplocoelum comprises 4 species on the mainland of tropical Africa.

Gereaua perrieri

A fifth species endemic to Madagascar was included in the genus as Haplocoelum perrieri Capuron, but it differs from the other species to such an extent that it was transferred to a distinct genus; its name is now Gereaua perrieri (Capuron) Buerki & Callmander. It is a small tree up to 15(–20) m tall suitable for timber; its branches are used for fencing and the seed aril is edible.

Haplocoelum inoploeum

Haplocoelum inoploeum Radlk. (synonym: Haplocoelum trigonocarpum Radlk.), called ‘mchumbi’ and ‘mfunga tanzu’ in Swahili, is a shrub or small tree up to 15 m tall occurring in coastal East Africa from Somalia to Tanzania. Its hard wood is used to manufacture walking sticks and clubs, and the seed aril is edible.

Ecology

Haplocoelum foliolosum is found in grassland, thickets and woodland, including Brachystegia- Isoberlinia woodland, from sea-level up to 1500 m altitude, in Malawi up to 1850 m.

Genetic resources

As Haplocoelum foliolosum is widely distributed and not heavily exploited, no threats are envisaged.

Prospects

Haplocoelum foliolosum does not seem to have prospects as a timber tree of commercial importance because it rarely reaches large dimensions. In view of the large variation, it is an interesting subject for combined taxonomic and ecological research.

Major references

Burkill, H.M., 2000. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 5, Families S–Z, Addenda. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 686 pp.

Coates Palgrave, K., 1983. Trees of southern Africa. 2nd Edition. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa. 959 pp.

Davies, F.G. & Verdcourt, B., 1998. Sapindaceae. In: Beentje, H.J. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 108 pp.

Kokwaro, J.O., 1993. Medicinal plants of East Africa. 2nd Edition. Kenya Literature Bureau, Nairobi, Kenya. 401 pp.

Other references

Beentje, H.J., 1994. Kenya trees, shrubs and lianas. National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya. 722 pp.

Buerki, S., Lowry II, P.P., Phillipson, P.B. & Callmander, M.W., 2010. Molecular phylogenetic and morphological evidence supports recognition of Gereaua, a new endemic genus of Sapindaceae from Madagascar. Systematic Botany 35(1): 172–180.

Fouilloy, R. & Hallé, N., 1973. Sapindacées. Flore du Cameroun. Volume 16. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. 202 pp.

Friis, I., Verdcourt, B. & Vollesen, K., 1996. New combinations in African Sapindaceae. Kew Bulletin 51(4): 802.

Friis, I. & Vollesen, K., 1999. Sapindaceae. In: Thulin, M. (Editor). Flora of Somalia. Volume 2. Angiospermae (Tiliaceae-Apiaceae). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. p. 239–253.

Hauman, L., 1960. Sapindaceae. In: Robyns, W., Staner, P., Demaret, F., Germain, R., Gilbert, G., Hauman, L., Homès, M., Jurion, F., Lebrun, J., Vanden Abeele, M. & Boutique, R. (Editors). Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. Spermatophytes. Volume 9. Institut National pour l’Étude Agronomique du Congo belge, Brussels, Belgium. pp. 279–384.

Ichikawa, M., 1987. A preliminary report on the ethnobotany of the Suiei Dorobo in northern Kenya. African Study Monographs, Supplement 7: 1–52.

McGinley, M. (Topic Editor), 2008. South Malawi montane forest-grassland mosaic. [Internet] In: Cleveland, C.J. (Editor). Encyclopedia of Earth. http://www.eoearth.org/ article/South_Malawi_montane_forest-grassland_mosaic. February 2010.

Author(s)

C.H. Bosch, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Bosch, C.H., 2011. Haplocoelum foliolosum (Hiern) Bullock. In: 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. Accessed 16 September 2026.

See the Prota4U database.