Anthocleista grandiflora

Anthocleista grandiflora, the forest big-leaf and in Afrikaans the boskoorsboom (bush fever tree) and wildetabakboom (wild tobacco tree), is a tall and slender, deciduous tree with short branches. It grows to heights ranging from 6 m to 30 m (SA Tree List No. 632).

The trunk and branches are bare below the stem tips, the bark pale grey or brown and smooth. The leaves are impressive in size, sometimes more than 70 cm long and 25 cm wide, clustered at stem tips. Their shape is obovate to oblong with rounded tips, tapering to the base where there is a very short or no petiole. Leaves are bright to dark green above, paler below and thinly textured with distinct lateral veins and net-veining. Leaf margins are entire, often unevenly crisped.

A. grandifloras South African distribution is restricted to the eastern, Lowveld parts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. It also grows in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and further north.

The trees habitat is near stream banks and in high rainfall, hot climate bushveld at low altitudes. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Grant, et al, 2001; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; http://redlist.sanbi.org).