Maytenus acuminata(L.f.) Loes.

WFO wfo-0000369427 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-27 / obs. 186050867
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 186051623
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 171582969
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 165770401
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 173414899
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 155676835
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by De Waal Hugo
fig. g De Waal Hugo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114074561
Maytenus acuminata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 55022225

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 19 botanical countries

Regions where Maytenus acuminata is native: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eswatini, Free State, Gabon, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh BurundiCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEswatiniFree StateGabonKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMalawiMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweBangladesh
Native distribution of Maytenus acuminata, 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
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Bangladesh BAN ASIA-TROPICAL

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 300 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.8 °C 8.0 °C 12.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.6 °C 23.8 °C 29.5 °C
Annual rainfall 483 mm 1,039 mm 2,308 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 31 mm 101 mm 211 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 300 research-grade observations of Maytenus acuminata 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 29 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.

  • Catha acuminata (L.f.) C.Presl
  • Catha rupestris (Eckl. & Zeyh.) C.Presl
  • Celastrus acuminatus L.f.
  • Celastrus acuminatus var. microphyllus Sond.
  • Celastrus microphyllus Eckl. & Zeyh.
  • Celastrus mucronatus Eckl. & Zeyh.
  • Celastrus plectronia DC.
  • Celastrus populifolius Lam.
  • Celastrus rupestris Eckl. & Zeyh.
  • Gymnosporia acuminata (L.f.) Szyszył.
  • Gymnosporia acuminata var. lepidota (Loes.) Loes.
  • Gymnosporia acuminata var. microphylla (Sond.) Davison
  • Gymnosporia amaniensis Loes.
  • Gymnosporia bukobina Loes.
  • Gymnosporia lepidota Loes.
  • Gymnosporia lepidota var. kilimandscharica Loes.
  • Gymnosporia lepidota var. ruwenzorica Loes.
  • Gymnosporia meruensis Loes.
  • Gymnosporia populifolia (Lam.) Dümmer
  • Ilex livida E.Mey.
  • Ilex lucida E.Mey. ex C.Presl
  • Maytenus acuminata var. acuminata
  • Maytenus acuminata var. uva-ursi Brenan
  • Maytenus amaniensis (Loes.) Loes.

and 5 more.

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.