Burkea africanaHook.

Wild seringa

WFO wfo-0000214110 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Burkea africana, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. a Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-11-04 / obs. 167241070
Burkea africana, photographed by Innes Buchner
fig. b Innes Buchner, CC0 1.0 / obs. 165796388
Burkea africana, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. c Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165390512
Burkea africana, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. d Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165393853
Burkea africana, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. e Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124605706
Burkea africana, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. f Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 119978738
Burkea africana, photographed by James Deacon
fig. g James Deacon, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 116376545
Burkea africana, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. h Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 105021550

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Burkea africana is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Senegal, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoGhanaGuineaIvory CoastMalawiMaliMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesSenegalSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Burkea africana, 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
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Ivory Coast IVO
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Senegal SEN
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.

Flowering 30 in flower of 209 examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Burkea africana observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 30 of 209 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 3 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.

  • Burkea africana var. andongensis Oliv.
  • Burkea africana var. cordata Welw. ex Oliv.
  • Burkea caperangau Baill.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.