Elaeodendron transvaalense(Burtt Davy) R.H.Archer

WFO wfo-0000665029 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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.

Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. a Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-08 / obs. 136283783
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. b Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 126834282
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. c Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 57003740
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 24780149
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. e Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153099871
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. f Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81584477
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. g Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136283594
Elaeodendron transvaalense, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. h Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 126834343

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 3711441
Filed as
Elaeodendron transvaalense (Burtt Davy) R.H.Archer
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
S. Rugheimer, E. S. Klaassen, D. Lutombi, H. Haufiku & et al. 2009-02-03
Origin
NA
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 10 botanical countries

Regions where Elaeodendron transvaalense is native: Angola, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Eswatini, KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBotswanaCaprivi StripEswatiniKwaZulu-NatalMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Elaeodendron transvaalense, 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
Botswana BOT
Caprivi Strip CPV
Eswatini SWZ
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
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 447 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.7 °C 6.9 °C 12.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.1 °C 29.7 °C 32.5 °C
Annual rainfall 419 mm 579 mm 849 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 7 mm 16 mm 56 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 447 research-grade observations of Elaeodendron transvaalense 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 6 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.

  • Cassine transvaalensis (Burtt Davy) Codd
  • Crocoxylon transvaalense (Burtt Davy) N.Robson
  • Elaeodendron croceum var. heterophyllum Loes.
  • Elaeodendron croceum var. triandrum Dinter
  • Pseudocassine transvaalensis (Burtt Davy) Bredell
  • Salacia transvaalensis Burtt Davy

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.