Casearia barteri

Family

Flacourtiaceae (APG: Salicaceae)

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Chromosome number

2n = 44

Synonyms

Casearia mannii Mast. (1871), Casearia runssorica Gilg (1913), Casearia noldei A.Fern. & Diniz (1958).

Vernacular names

Origin and geographic distribution

Casearia barteri occurs in the Lower Guinean and Congolian rainforest areas from Nigeria eastward to Sudan, and southward to Angola and Tanzania.

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Uses

In West Africa the branches are used to make chew-sticks. In Burundi decoctions of the leaves are drunk against fever and madness. In DR Congo the fruits are used as a fish poison.

Properties

Phytochemical screening of the plant for active compounds gave positive results for saponins only.

Botany

Small to medium-sized tree, up to 20(–40) m tall; bole cylindrical, up to 40(–60) cm in diameter; bark greyish-brownish, slightly rugose; branches more or less horizontal; branchlets prismatic-angular, glabrous at tips. Leaves alternate, entire; petiole 1–1.5 cm long; blade ovate-oblong or oblong, (5–)7–14(–28) cm × (3–)4–6(–10) cm, base broadly cuneate or sometimes almost rounded and usually slightly unequal-sided, apex subacuminate, coriaceous, smooth and shiny above, lateral veins in 6–7(–10) pairs, curved, prominent beneath, tertiary veins laxly prominent-reticulate beneath. Inflorescence axillary, fascicled or glomerate, from a subglobose many-bracteolate cushion, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, small, greenish; pedicel 3(–5) mm long; calyx-lobes 5, c. 3 mm long, petals absent, stamens c. 10, alternating with filiform staminodes; ovary ovoid, attenuate to a short style. Fruit subglobular to broadly ellipsoid, somewhat trigonous, (1.5–)2–2.5(–3) cm × 1.5(–2) cm, yellow-orange, few-seeded. Seeds enveloped in a soft, membranous aril; testa crustaceous.
In Ghana Casearia barteri flowers in July–September and bears fruits in September–December.
Casearia is a genus of 160–180 species distributed over the tropics and subtropics, poorly represented in Africa with 9 species in mainland Africa, 1 in Madagascar and 2 in the Mascarenes.
Casearia prismatocarpa Mast. (synonym: Casearia dinklagei Gilg) is a very similar species that has been considered conspecific withCasearia barteri. It is a tree up to 20 m tall, occurring in the rainforest area from Sierra Leone to DR Congo. Its twigs are used in Ghana as chew-sticks and in Liberia the leaves are taken as a purgative.

Description

Other botanical information

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Ecology

Casearia barteri occurs from sea level up to 2450 m altitude in rainforest, swampy, flooded, half deciduous and secondary forests, gallery forest and wooded savanna.

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Management

The twigs are only collected from the wild.

Genetic resources and breeding

Casearia barteri is listed in the IUCN Red list as Lower Risk/least concern, but this needs to be updated in view of the current circumscription of the species.

Prospects

It is unlikely that Casearia barteri will gain importance as a fibre plant in the future.

Major references

• Aubréville, A., 1936. La flore forestière de la Côte d’Ivoire. Tome 3. Larose, Paris, France. 285 pp.
• Breteler, F.J., 2008. A synopsis of Casearia Jacq. (Samydeae – Salicaceae) in West and Central Africa with a description of a new species from Eastern Congo (Kinshasa). Kew Bulletin 63: 101–112.
• Burkill, H.M., 1994. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 2, Families E–I. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 636 pp.
• Hul, S., 1995. Flacourtiaceae. Flore du Gabon. Volume 34. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. 82 pp.
• Sleumer, H., 1971. Le genre Casearia Jacq. (Flacourtiaceae) en Afrique, à Madagascar et aux Mascareignes. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 41: 397–426.

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Other references

• Baerts, M. & Lehmann, J., 1989. Guérisseurs et plantes médicinales de la région des crêtes Zaïre-Nil au Burundi. Annales Sciences Economiques Vol. 18. Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium. 214 pp.
• Bouquet, A. & Debray, M., 1974. Plantes médicinales de la Côte d’Ivoire. Travaux et Documents No 32. ORSTOM, Paris, France. 231 pp.
• Chase, M.W., Zmarzty, S., Lledo, M.D., Wurdack, K.J., Swensen, S.M., & Fay, M.F., 2002. When in doubt, put it in Flacourtiaceae: a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on plastid rbcL DNA sequences. Kew Bulletin 57: 141–181.
• Elujoba, A.A., Odeleye, O.M. & Ogunyemi, C.M., 2005. Traditional medicine development for medical and dental health care delivery system in Africa. African Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicines 2(1): 46–61.
• Irvine, F.R., 1961. Woody plants of Ghana, with special reference to their uses. Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom. 868 pp.
• Neuwinger, H.D., 2004. Plants used for poison fishing in tropical Africa. Toxicon 44(4): 417–430.
• Osho, J. S. A., 1996. Modelling the tree population dynamics of the most abundant species in a Nigerian tropical rain forest. Ecological Modelling 89(1–3): 175–181.
• Sleumer, H., 1975. Flacourtiaceae. In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. 68 pp.
• Sleumer, H. & Bamps, P., 1976. Flacourtiaceae (seconde partie). In: Bamps, P. (Editor). Flore d’Afrique centrale. Spermatophytes. Jardin botanique national de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. 45 pp.
• World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 1998. Casearia barteri. In: IUCN. Red list of threatened species. Version 2010.1. [Internet] http://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed March 2010.

Author(s)

•	L.P.A. Oyen PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Editors

•	M. Brink PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands
•	E.G. Achigan Dako PROTA Network Office Africa, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), P.O. Box 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

Correct citation of this article

Oyen, L.P.A., 2010. Casearia barteri Mast. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Brink, M. & Achigan-Dako, E.G. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>. Accessed .

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