Garcinia livingstonei T. Anderson

Garcinia species are evergreen trees or shrubs, wood moderately hard, bark grey, reddish or pale gray, branches often opposite, terete, glabrous, latex usually resinous, thick, yellow in bark, branches and fruits, but sometimes cream white. Leaves simple, opposite or rarely ternate, lanceolate-ovate to oblong-oblong, base acute to obtuse, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate, chartaceous, leathery, coriaceous, glabrous on both sides, with translucent glands, midrib impressed above and prominent beneath, lateral veins irregular with parallel short veins between, veinlets reticulate, petiole slender with raised margins, exstipulate, rarely stipulate. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, in cymes, fascicles, solitary or paired. Flowers 4-5 merous, heterochlamydeous, dioecious, pseudobisexual and female ones, always less, pedicel short or sessile, sepals 4 or 5-6, imbricate, decussate in pairs, or usually persistent in fruit, petals 4, rarely 5, imbricate or contorted, alternating with sepals. Male flowers: Stamens numerous, rarely few, obscurely fascicled with 1-5 bundles, lobed mass often around a rudimentary pistil, free or connate at the base, filaments short or absent, anthers erect or peltate, 2 loculed or rarely 4, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Female flowers: often solitary, bigger than male flowers, with minute free or united staminodes, filaments arranged in ring shape, ovary superior, globose, 2-12 locular, ovules lateral or erect, anatropus, style short or absent, stigma peltate, smooth or papillate. Fruit fleshy berry, sulcate or smooth, encased by persistent sepals. Seeds 1-12, oblong ovoid, covered with juicy cream white pulp.

Garcinia species flowers are dioecious with separate male and female plants, pseudobisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), or sometimes monoecious i.e. both male and female plants on the same plant. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects, or cleistogamy i.e., by self or allogamy i.e., by cross pollination. Flowering/Fruiting: June—September.

Seeds may be dispersed by autochory i.e., self dispersal, zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Evergreen shrubs or small trees, up to 10 m tall with conical or spreading dense crown, wood moderately hard, bark dark reddish brown or dark grayish brown, fissures, trunk sometimes branched from the base, branches often opposite, glabrous, terete, latex usually resinous, thick, yellow or red, in bark, branches and fruits. Leaves simple, opposite, variable, lanceolate-elliptic to ovate-oblong, about 6-16 x 2.5-7.5 cm across, base acute, margins entire or wavy, apex shallow acuminate to cuspidate, chartaceous, coriaceous, shining green above and paler beneath, glabrous on both sides, with translucent glands, midrib impressed above and prominent beneath, lateral veins 10-15, irregular with oblique parallel short veins between, veinlets reticulate, petiole subsessile or about 1-3 mm long. Inflorescence axillary, solitary, cymes or fascicles. Flowers heterochlamydeous, dioecious and bisexual, yellowish green, about 5-15 mm across, pedicel long, sepals 4, imbricate, decussate in pairs, or usually persistent in fruit, petals 4, imbricate, obovate-orbicular, alternating with sepals. Male flowers: axillary, solitary or fascicled in older branches, yellow, stamens 16, inserted around lobed mass often around a rudimentary pistil, connate at the base, filaments filiform, anthers peltate, 2 loculed. Female flowers: often solitary, bigger than male flowers, globose, filaments arranged in ring shape, ovary superior, globose. Fruit fleshy berry, globose-ovoid, 2.5 x 3 cm across, smooth, orange to reddish. Seeds 1-12, globose-ovoid, covered with juicy cream white pulp.

Garcinia species are susceptible to various insect pests, virus and fungi, affecting leaves, fruits and roots.

Cultivated in gardens, Native of tropical Africa.

Not evaluated (IUCN).

Native of tropical Africa, cultivated in botanical gardens.