White milkwood

Description

Sideroxylon inerme (aMasethole or white milkwood, Afrikaans: wit-melkhout, Xhosa: Ximafana, Zulu: Umakhwelafingqane) is a Southern African coastal tree, with dense foliage, black berries and small, foetid, greenish flowers. The tree's generic name means "Iron-wood" in Greek, referring to its very hard timber. It is one of South Africa's "Protected Trees" and several specimens are provincial heritage sites. This is the only member of the genus Sideroxylon in southern Africa. The Sideroxylon inerme trees are scattered through the coastal woodlands and littoral forests of South Africa as far as Zimbabwe. Historically, dense forests of large milkwood trees used to exist along the coast and bays of Cape Town, especially at Noordhoek, Macassar and Gordons Bay. The milkwood is not endangered but it is one of South Africa's Protected Trees, which means that it is illegal to damage, move or destroy them. Sideroxylon inerme is a semi-coastal sturdy broadleaf evergreen tree with dense foliage, displays of white bisexual flowers and edible purplish-black berries. It boasts leathery, spiral leaves, which, like the berries, contain milky latex. Young branches and new leaves are always covered with fine hairs. The tree can reach 15 m. The milkwood has considerable value in traditional medicine and attracts birds, monkeys and other animals to its flowers and fruits : Speckled mousebirds eat the flowers ; birds, bats, monkeys and bush pigs eat the fruit. It is also an effective firebreak and is cultivated for that purpose. Sideroxylon is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753. They are collectively known as bully trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek words (sideros), meaning "iron", and (xylon), meaning "wood." The genus is distributed mainly in North and South America, but also in Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia, and various oceanic islands. Some species, such as gum bully (S. lanuginosum), S. tenax, and buckthorn bully (S. lycioides), are found in subtropical areas of North America. The only South African species, the white milkwood (S. inerme), is associated with three historical sites, and these individuals were declared national monuments due to their unusual longevity. Several species have become rare due to logging and other forms of habitat destruction.