Bersama lucens leaves still young

The young stem tip leaves of this Bersama lucens tree are glossy and pale green. Leaf surfaces are leathery and hairless. The leaves are alternate and composite, having one to three, sometimes four pairs of opposite leaflets as well as a terminal one. The (leaf’s) petiole is up to 2,5 cm long, the (leaflets’) petiolules quite short.

The leaflet is ovate to elliptic or obovate; its tip rounded, sometimes notched or bluntly pointed, the base tapering, often asymmetrically. Leaflet margins are entire, thickened and usually undulating. Leaflet midribs and lateral veins are yellowish, conspicuous upon both surfaces, translucent against sunlight (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993).