Allophylus africanusP.Beauv.

WFO wfo-0000526543 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Allophylus africanus, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. a Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-01-10 / obs. 112051558
Allophylus africanus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. b Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102255637
Allophylus africanus, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. c i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31616558
Allophylus africanus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. d Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102255508
Allophylus africanus, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. e i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31616554
Allophylus africanus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. f Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102255639
Allophylus africanus, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. g i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31616568
Allophylus africanus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. h Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102255638

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 41 botanical countries

Regions where Allophylus africanus is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cabinda, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCabindaCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMalawiMaliMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Allophylus africanus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cabinda CAB
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 58 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 2.7 °C 8.7 °C 19.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.5 °C 27.0 °C 36.6 °C
Annual rainfall 591 mm 947 mm 1,251 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 30 mm 109 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 58 research-grade observations of Allophylus africanus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Allophylus africanus f. acuminatus Robyns ex Hauman
  • Allophylus africanus f. mawambensis (Gilg) Hauman
  • Allophylus africanus f. senegalensis Radlk.
  • Allophylus africanus f. subvelutinus Radlk.
  • Allophylus cataractarum Baker f.
  • Allophylus goetzeanus Gilg
  • Allophylus griseotomentosus Gilg
  • Allophylus holubii Baker f.
  • Allophylus mawambensis Gilg
  • Allophylus melanocarpus (Arn.) Radlk.
  • Allophylus schweinfurthii Gilg
  • Allophylus spragueanus Burtt Davy
  • Allophylus subcoriaceus Baker f.
  • Allophylus timboensis Hua
  • Allophylus transvaalensis Burtt Davy
  • Azamara trifoliata Hochst. ex Baker
  • Ornitrophe tristachyos Schumach. & Thonn.
  • Schmidelia affinis Guill. & Perr.
  • Schmidelia africana (P.Beauv.) DC.
  • Schmidelia leucocarpa Arn.
  • Schmidelia melanocarpa Arn.
  • Schmidelia rehmanniana Szyszył.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.