Ekebergia capensisSparrm.

WFO wfo-0000663623 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Lizl Lubbe
fig. a Lizl Lubbe, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-02 / obs. 193536141
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Jeremy Gilmore
fig. b Jeremy Gilmore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181546978
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. c Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175922227
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Caroline Voget
fig. d Caroline Voget, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165283683
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. e Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165056274
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Jeremy Gilmore
fig. f Jeremy Gilmore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175899017
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Jeremy Gilmore
fig. g Jeremy Gilmore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175899004
Ekebergia capensis, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 141014359

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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Ekebergia capensis is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMalawiMaliMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Ekebergia capensis, 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
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 656 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 6.9 °C 11.5 °C 17.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.6 °C 24.3 °C 29.0 °C
Annual rainfall 580 mm 855 mm 1,208 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 32 mm 110 mm 197 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 656 research-grade observations of Ekebergia capensis 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 21 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.

  • Charia chevalieri C.DC.
  • Charia indeniensis A.Chev.
  • Ekebergia buchananii Harms
  • Ekebergia chevalieri Harms
  • Ekebergia complanata Baker f.
  • Ekebergia dahomensis A.Chev.
  • Ekebergia holtzii Harms
  • Ekebergia indeniensis (A.Chev.) Harms ex Engl.
  • Ekebergia meyeri C.Presl ex C.DC.
  • Ekebergia mildbraedii Harms
  • Ekebergia petitiana A.Rich.
  • Ekebergia petitiana var. australia Baker f.
  • Ekebergia ruppeliana A.Rich.
  • Ekebergia senegalensis A.Juss.
  • Ekebergia senegalensis var. coriacea C.DC.
  • Ekebergia senegalensis var. parvifoliola C.DC.
  • Polyscias lepidota Chiov.
  • Sorindeia doeringii Engl. & K.Krause
  • Trichilia capensis (Sparrm.) Pers.
  • Trichilia ekebergia E.Mey. ex Sond.
  • Trichilia rueppelliana Fresen.

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.