Ochna holstii (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Medicinal
Timber

Ochna holstii Engl.

Protologue: Abh. Königl. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin: 69 (1894).

Family: Ochnaceae

Synonyms

Ochna prunifolia Engl. (1895).

Vernacular names

Red ironwood, real red pear, common forest ochna (En). Mkamachuma (Sw).

Origin and geographic distribution

Ochna holstii occurs from eastern DR Congo, southern Sudan and Ethiopia southward to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and eastern South Africa.

Uses

The wood of Ochna holstii is used for joinery, furniture, domestic utensils and tool handles. It is suitable for heavy construction, heavy flooring, interior trim, ship building, vehicle bodies, sporting goods, toys, novelties, musical instruments, precision instruments, agricultural implements, carvings, turnery, pattern making, sliced veneer and plywood. It is also used as firewood and for charcoal production.

The tree is used as ornamental shade tree. The bark produces a yellow dye. In Kenya root extracts are taken against kidney and stomach problems.

Production and international trade

The wood of Ochna holstii is only used locally.

Properties

The properties given refer to wood of several Ochna species, including that of Ochna holstii. The heartwood is pale red-brown and distinctly demarcated from the narrow, pale yellow sapwood. The grain is straight, texture fine and even. The wood is heavy, with a density of 880–950 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. It air dries well, but has some tendency to surface checking and warping. The wood is hard, tough and elastic. It saws and works remarkably well for its high density. It planes to a smooth, lustrous surface and takes a nice polish. Pre-boring is required for nailing and screwing. Slicing and jointing properties are good and gluing properties excellent. The wood is moderately durable, but has been reported to be resistant to termites.

Description

Deciduous shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 25(–30) m tall; bole branchless for up to 6 m, usually straight; bark surface smooth, grey or grey-brown, inner bark granular-fibrous, hard, pale orange outwards and brown-red with white lines inwards; twigs somewhat quadrangular, purplish brown, glabrous, with numerous small lenticels. Leaves alternate, simple; stipules caducous; petiole 1–3 mm long, slender, grooved above; blade oblanceolate to obovate or oblong-elliptical, (1.5–)5–13 cm × (0.5–)1.5–4 cm, base cuneate or sometimes rounded, apex acute or acuminate, margins densely set with curved teeth, herbaceous to papery, glabrous, pinnately veined with up to 25 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence a short raceme, with rachis up to 2 cm long, glabrous, 5–20-flowered. Flowers bisexual, nearly regular, 5-merous; pedicel 1.5–4 cm long, jointed near base; sepals free, oblong-elliptical, slightly unequal, 6–9 mm long, enlarging and becoming red in fruit; petals free, obovate, 8–12 mm long, with a short claw at base, yellow; stamens numerous, free, c. 5 mm long; carpels 5(–6), free, styles completely fused, stigma 5(–6)-lobed or globose. Fruit consisting of some free ellipsoid-cylindrical, black drupelets, 8–14 mm × 5–9 mm, each 1-seeded.

Other botanical information

Ochna holstii is variable, especially in leaf size and shape, and in habit. In South Africa it flowers in September–November and fruits mature 1–2 months later.

Ochna comprises about 80 species and occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa. Mainland Africa is by far richest in species, about 15 species are endemic to Madagascar and 1 to the Mascarene islands, whereas about 5 species are found in Asia.

Ochna afzelii

Ochna afzelii R.Br. ex Oliv. (synonym: Ochna gilletiana Gilg), called ‘ochna blanche’ in French, is a shrub or small tree up to 13 m tall, occurring in savanna woodland and forest margins from Guinea eastward to Sudan and Uganda, and southward to Zambia and Angola. Its pale brown and attractively marked wood is heavy and hard, and used for joinery, cabinet work and turnery, and traditionally for walking sticks and hoe handles. The fruit is edible and the seed is oily. In Central Africa the bark enters into traditional medicines against skin parasites, anaemia, cough and dysentery, whereas leaf pulp is applied to treat gingivitis. In Mali, leafy twigs are used in the treatment of paralysis. Pharmacological research has so far not found support for the traditional medicinal uses.

Ochna arborea

Ochna arborea Burch. ex DC., called ‘Cape plane’ or ‘redwood’, is a shrub or small tree up to 12 m tall, occurring in evergreen forest and bushland in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. Its wood is heavy, hard and strong, and is used to make tool handles and carved sticks. The bark contains tannins and has been used as snuff against headache.

Ochna ovata

Ochna ovata F.Hoffm., called ‘buttercup bush’, is a deciduous shrub or small tree up to 9(–15) m tall, occurring in dry forest and bushland in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Its wood is similar to that of Ochna holstii and is used for construction, walking sticks, arrow shafts and pegs, and as firewood. In Tanzania leaf sap is applied as an eye medicine and root extracts against stomach-ache with diarrhoea.

Ochna thomasiana

Ochna thomasiana Engl. & Gilg, called ‘bird’s eye plant’ or ‘mickey mouse plant’, is a shrub or small tree up to 6(–10) m tall, occurring in evergreen bushland and coastal forest in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. Its brown durable wood is used for door frames in Kenya. Ochna thomasiana is cultivated as ornamental and sometimes naturalized outside its natural distribution area, e.g. in DR Congo, Hawaii and India.

Ecology

Ochna holstii occurs in evergreen rainforest but also in drier, more open vegetation including wooded grassland, up to 2400 m altitude.

Management

Ochna holstii occurs wild, but occasionally trees for amenity or shade are tended or may have been planted. Some care is needed at felling because the bole may have heart rot.

Genetic resources

Ochna holstii is widespread and locally common in various habitats. There are no indications that it is in danger of genetic erosion.

Prospects

Ochna is in need of a thorough comprehensive taxonomic revision. Ochna species are generally small trees rarely yielding sizeable timber. The properties of the woods of Ochna holstii and other Ochna species developing a larger bole (such as Ochna calodendron Gilg & Mildbr. described from Cameroon, which reportedly has a bole branchless for up to 20 m and up to 60 cm in diameter) have to be documented before specific prospects can be assessed.

Major references

• Bolza, E. & Keating, W.G., 1972. African timbers: the properties, uses and characteristics of 700 species. Division of Building Research, CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia. 710 pp.

• Coates Palgrave, K., 1983. Trees of southern Africa. 2nd Edition. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa. 959 pp.

• Lovett, J.C., Ruffo, C.K., Gereau, R.E. & Taplin, J.R.D., 2007. Field guide to the moist forest trees of Tanzania. [Internet] Centre for Ecology Law and Policy, Environment Department, University of York, York, United Kingdom. http://celp.org.uk/ projects/ tzforeco/. December 2011.

• Robson, N.K.B., 1963. Ochnaceae. In: Exell, A.W., Fernandes, A. & Wild, H. (Editors). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 2, part 1. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 224–262.

• Verdcourt, B., 2005. Ochnaceae. In: Beentje, H.J. & Ghazanfar, S.A. (Editors). Flora of Tropical East Africa. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 60 pp.

Other references

• Beentje, H.J., 1994. Kenya trees, shrubs and lianas. National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya. 722 pp.

• du Toit, P.C.V. & Obermeyer, A.A., 1976. Ochnaceae. In: Ross, J.H. (Editor). Flora of southern Africa. Volume 22. Botanical Research Institute, Department of Agricultural Technical Services, Pretoria, South Africa. pp. 1–13.

• Grace, O.M., Prendergast, H.D.V., Jäger, A.K. & van Staden, J., 2002. Bark medicines in traditional healthcare in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: an inventory. South African Journal of Botany 69(3): 301–363.

• Keay, R.W.J., 1954. Ochnaceae. In: Keay, R.W.J. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. Volume 1, part 1. 2nd Edition. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 221–232.

• Kokwaro, J.O., 1993. Medicinal plants of East Africa. 2nd Edition. Kenya Literature Bureau, Nairobi, Kenya. 401 pp.

• Neuwinger, H.D., 2000. African traditional medicine: a dictionary of plant use and applications. Medpharm Scientific, Stuttgart, Germany. 589 pp.

• Sommerlatte, H. & Sommerlatte, M., 1990. A field guide to the trees and shrubs of the Imatong Mountains, southern Sudan. Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammmenarbeit (GTZ), Nairobi, Kenya. 372 pp.

• Starr, F., Starr, K. & Loope, L., 2003. Ochna thomasiana. [Internet] US Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Haleakala Field Station, Maui, Hawaii, United States. http://www.hear.org/ starr/hiplants/reports/pdf/ ochna_thomasiana.pdf. December 2011.

• Vivien, J. & Faure, J.J., 1985. Arbres des forêts denses d’Afrique Centrale. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, Paris, France. 565 pp.

• Vollesen, K., 1995. Ochnaceae. In: Edwards, S., Mesfin Tadesse & Hedberg, I. (Editors). Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Volume 2, part 2. Canellaceae to Euphorbiaceae. The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Department of Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. pp. 66–69.

Author(s)

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

Correct citation of this article

Oyen, L.P.A., 2012. Ochna holstii Engl. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 31 March 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.