Diospyros korupensis Gosline

Tree up to 25 m tall and 40 cm diameter at 1.5 m height, bole cylindrical and without buttresses, bark blackish- brown, granular with vertical fissures, flaking in hard or soft thin vertical flakes; slash mustard-yellow. Twigs terete, surface smooth, dark-reddish-brown to black, puberulent, older branches with grey outer bark, fibrous reddish inner bark, no lenticels, no apparent inner black ring. Leaves alternate, petioles terete, stout, 10-15-2-6 mm, often thicker than the twig, with slight ridges but not canaliculate, a distinct abscission joint visible, minutely wrinkled circumferentially when dry, ferruginous to black contrasting with the pale lamina and nervation. Lamina slightly ovate to slightly obovate, 25-45-11-15 cm, base rounded to cuneate, apex acute to acuminate, acumen absent or to 35-10 mm, entire; nerves readily apparent above, markedly prominent below, midrib convex above, 1 mm wide, 5-8 pairs of strongly ascendant secondary veins at an angle of ca 608 from the midrib, ascendant for up to 2/3 the length of the leaf, anastomizing 1-3 mm from the margin of the leaf, tertiary veins semi-horizontal across leaf, a reticulate network of veins readily apparent with a hand lens; chartaceous, adaxial surface olive-green, abaxial surface markedly glaucous, with a smooth whitish to greenish- yellow waxy epidermis, abaxial surface and midrib glabrescent with short fine white appressed hairs. Flowers strongly scented, corollas white, drying black. Male flowers in fascicles of 30-50 flowers on old branches; floral bracts round, B0.5 mm in diameter, glabrescent at base of pedicels, pedicels 2-4 mm long, pedicels and calices with a fine light-brown pubescence; calyx cupular 2- 3 mm with five teeth B0.2 mm long, corollas contorted in bud 15-4 mm, at anthesis tube 1-2 mm long, lobes 5, oblanceolate 15-18-3-5 mm, apex rounded, white, glabrous; stamens ca 12, borne on a column 1 mm long, not adnate to corolla, in two concentric rings of 6, to 3 mm long, not exserted, filaments 2 mm long, hirsute, thecae 1 mm long, pistillode absent. Female flowers in fascicles of 5-12 flowers, pedicels subtended by numerous deltoid bracts 1-1 mm with a ciliate margin, glabrous; pedicels terete 2-3 mm long expanding into a circular disk 2-3 mm in diameter at floral end, contracting abruptly to 1 mm diameter forming a marked articulation beneath the calyx; pedicels and calices whitish-yellow pubescent, calyx barrelshaped, to 5-7 mm with 5 distinct obtuse lobes 1- 2 mm; corolla tube 5-4 mm, lobes 5 oblanceolate 15- 5 mm, staminodes 5, lanceolate, 2 mm long ciliate adherent to interior of corolla tube and falling with corolla; ovary ovoid 3 mm diameter covered with golden-brown bristly hairs 1 mm long; stigmas 5 lanceolate, black, glabrous, protruding through the bristly indumentum of the ovary, locules 10.

Source: Gosline G. Diospyros korupensis sp. nov. and Diospyros onanae sp. nov. (Ebenaceae) from Cameroon. Nordic Journal of Botany 27: 353-358.