Eremomastax speciosa(Hochst.) Cufod.

WFO wfo-0000670925 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 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.

Eremomastax speciosa, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. a Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / 2021-12-09 / obs. 174091878

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
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Accession
K000339092
Filed as
Eremomastax speciosa (Hochst.) Cufod.
Det. by
Ghogue, J.
Collected
Munyenyembe, P. 1996-11-01
Origin
CM
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

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 21 botanical countries

Regions where Eremomastax speciosa is native: Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia BeninCameroonCentral African RepublicCongoDR CongoEquatorial GuineaEthiopiaGabonGhanaGuineaIvory CoastKenyaLiberiaMadagascarNigeriaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambia
Native distribution of Eremomastax speciosa, 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
Benin BEN AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Equatorial Guinea EQG
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Nigeria NGA
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM

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.

Also published as 15 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.

  • Eremomastax crossandriflora Lindau
  • Eremomastax polysperma (Benth.) Dandy
  • Paulo-wilhelmia decaryi Benoist
  • Paulo-wilhelmia elata Lindau
  • Paulo-wilhelmia glabra Lindau
  • Paulo-wilhelmia glabra Lindau
  • Paulo-wilhelmia polysperma Benth.
  • Paulo-wilhelmia pubescens Lindau
  • Paulo-wilhelmia sclerochiton Lindau
  • Paulo-wilhelmia sclerochiton (S.Moore) Lindau
  • Paulo-wilhelmia speciosa Hochst.
  • Paulo-wilhelmia togoensis Lindau
  • Paulowilhelmia elata Lindau
  • Paulowilhelmia pubescens Lindau
  • Ruellia sclerochiton S.Moore

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.