Rawsonia lucida (PROTA)
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Introduction |
| General importance |  
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| Geographic coverage Africa |
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| Geographic coverage World |
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| Fruit |
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| Timber |
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| Food security |
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Rawsonia lucida Harv. ex Sond.
- Protologue: Harv. & Sond., Fl. cap. 1: 67 (1860).
- Family: Flacourtiaceae (APG: Achariaceae)
Synonyms
Rawsonia reticulata Gilg (1901).
Vernacular names
- Forest peach (En).
Origin and geographic distribution
Rawsonia lucida occurs from Sudan east to Somalia and Kenya and south to Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, eastern South Africa and Swaziland.
Uses
The wood is locally used for walking sticks, pestles, spoons and tool handles, and also as firewood and for charcoal production. The fruit is recorded as edible.
Properties
The pale pink to reddish wood is heavy, hard and tough. The cyanogenic glycosides gynocardin and cyclopentenylglycine have been isolated from the leaves.
Description
- Evergreen shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall; bole up to 50 cm in diameter, sometimes fluted at base or with buttresses; bark surface smooth, peeling in rounded scales, grey to reddish brown, inner bark red; crown with spreading branches; twigs short-hairy to glabrous.
- Leaves alternate, simple; stipules narrowly oblong, c. 5(–10) mm long, caducous; petiole 0.5–1(–1.5) cm long; blade oblanceolate to oblong-obovate, 7–20 cm × 2–8.5 cm, cuneate to obtuse at base, acuminate at apex, margins usually distinctly toothed, thin-leathery, glabrous, glossy, pinnately veined with 6–9 pairs of lateral veins.
- Inflorescence an axillary raceme up to 2.5(–4) cm long, short-hairy to glabrous, densely flowered.
- Flowers bisexual or male, regular, scented; pedicel up to 2 mm long; sepals 4–6, free, unequal, rounded to elliptical, (2–)3–4(–5) mm long, short-hairy on margins; petals 4–8, similar to sepals but 5–8 mm long and with basal hairy appendage inside; stamens numerous, up to 1 cm long; ovary superior, glabrous, 1-celled, style up to 2 mm long, with 3–4 short branches.
- Fruit a globose berry-like capsule 2–2.5(–4) cm in diameter, short-pointed, glabrous, yellow becoming reddish, tardily dehiscent with 4–5 valves, up to 10-seeded.
- Seeds ovoid to nearly globose, 6–10 mm long, rough.
Other botanical information
Rawsonia lucida sometimes flowers when only 3 m tall. In southern Africa trees flower in September to November, and fruits ripen in November to February. They have been reported to fruit in Kenya in June–July. Trees may produce masses of fruits that may carpet the forest floor in the fruiting season. They are eaten by monkeys, which probably disperse the seeds.
Rawsonia comprises 2 species and is related to Dasylepis, Erythrospermum and Scottellia. Rawsonia burtt-davyi (Edlin) F.White is a small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall, with bole up to 30 cm in diameter, endemic to Mt Mulanje in Malawi.
Ecology
Rawsonia lucida is most characteristic for mid-altitude and montane semi-evergreen forest up to 2200 m altitude, but it also occurs in the lowlands. It is found in dry to moist evergreen forest and in riverine forest, usually in the understorey.
Management
Rawsonia lucida can be propagated by seeds and cuttings. It is recommended to soak seeds in water for 24 hours before sowing. They should be covered with 1 cm of soil and kept at about 25°C, constantly moist but not wet. The seeds germinate in 3–6 weeks.
Genetic resources
Rawsonia lucida is widespread and locally common, and certainly not endangered by genetic erosion.
Prospects
The wood of Rawsonia lucida will remain of limited importance for local applications. The small size of the bole makes that it has no prospects for the international timber market. As an evergreen tree with shiny leaves, it may have prospects as ornamental.
Major references
- Coates Palgrave, K., 1983. Trees of southern Africa. 2nd Edition. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa. 959 pp.
- Dowsett-Lemaire, F. & White, F., 1990. New and noteworthy plants from the evergreen forests of Malawi. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 60: 73–110.
- Lovett, J.C., Ruffo, C.K. & Gereau, R.E., 2003. Field guide to the moist forest trees of Tanzania. [Internet] Centre for Ecology Law and Policy, Environment Department, University of York, York, United Kingdom. 192 pp. http://www.cepf.net/ Documents/ Final_LovettRuffoGereau_FieldGuide.pdf. August 2011.
- Palmer, E. & Pitman, N., 1972–1974. Trees of southern Africa, covering all known indigenous species in the Republic of South Africa, South-West Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. 3 volumes. Balkema, Cape Town, South Africa. 2235 pp.
- Sleumer, H., 1975. Flacourtiaceae. In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. 68 pp.
Other references
- Andersen, L., Clausen, V., Oketch Rabah, H.A., Lechtenberg, M., Adsersen, A., Nahrstedt, A. & Jaroszewski, J.W., 2001. Gynocardin and cyclopentenylglycine in Rawsonia lucida. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 29(2): 219–222.
- Bamps, P., 1968. Flacourtiaceae. In: Flore du Congo, du Ruanda et du Burundi. Spermatophytes. Jardin botanique national de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. 61 pp.
- Beentje, H.J., 1994. Kenya trees, shrubs and lianas. National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya. 722 pp.
- Chase, M.W., Zmarzty, S., Lledo, M.D., Wurdack, K.J., Swensen, S.M. & Fay, M.F., 2002. When in doubt, put it in Flacourtiaceae: a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on plastid rbcL DNA sequences. Kew Bulletin 57(1): 141–181.
- Engel, T.R., 2000. Seed dispersal and forest regeneration in a tropical lowland biocoenosis (Shimba Hills, Kenya). PhD thesis, Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, Germany. Logos Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 345 pp.
- Hyde, M.A. & Wursten, B., 2011. Rawsonia lucida. [Internet] Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/ speciesdata/ species.php?species_id=140650. August 2011.
- InsideWood, undated. [Internet] http://insidewood.lib.ncsu.edu/search/. August 2011.
- Wild, H., 1960. Flacourtiaceae (incl. Samydaceae). In: Exell, A.W. & Wild, H. (Editors). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 1, part 1. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 261–298.
- Wimbush, S.H., 1957. Catalogue of Kenya timbers. 2nd reprint. Government Printer, Nairobi, Kenya. 74 pp.
Author(s)
- R.H.M.J. Lemmens, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands
Correct citation of this article
Lemmens, R.H.M.J., 2012. Rawsonia lucida Harv. 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 17 September 2026.
- See the Prota4U database.