Bertiera spicata (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Dye / tannin

Bertiera spicata (Gaertn.f.) K.Schum.

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 23: 451 (1897).

Family: Rubiaceae

Chromosome number: 2n = 22

Bertiera spicata occurs from Senegal to western Côte d’Ivoire.

The bark of Bertiera spicata yields a yellow dye, which is used in West Africa to dye cotton.

• Shrub up to 5 m tall; twigs clothed with long spreading hairs.
• Leaves opposite, simple and entire; stipules triangular, c. 3 cm long, caducous; petiole up to 1.5 cm long; blade ovate-oblong, 15–25 cm × 4–7 cm, base rounded to cuneate, apex acuminate, hairy below, especially on the 10–12 pairs of lateral veins.
• Inflorescence a lax false spike up to 20 cm long.
• Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, almost sessile, c. 1 cm long, white, yellow-green or pinkish; calyx tubular with small triangular lobes, pubescent; corolla tubular with ovate lobes, hairy inside; stamens inserted at corolla throat, almost sessile; ovary inferior, 2-celled, style filiform-clavate, with 2 compressed oblong branches.
• Fruit a soft and juicy, globose berry c. 5 mm in diameter, marked with shallow longitudinal furrows when young, brown, many-seeded.

Bertiera comprises 40–50 species, with about 30 in tropical Africa, 5 in the Indian Ocean islands and 5 in tropical America. It belongs to the tribe Gardenieae. Bertiera spicata belongs to subgenus Bertiera.

Bertiera spicata occurs in the understorey of swamp, gallery and mangrove forests, often near the coast, sometimes also in secondary vegetation and along roadsides.

Bertiera spicata is rather widespread in a range of habitats, and does not seem to be in danger of genetic erosion.

At the best Bertiera spicata will remain a source of yellow dye of minor local importance.

• Burkill, H.M., 1997. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Families M–R. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 969 pp.

• Hepper, F.N. & Keay, R.W.J., 1963. Rubiaceae. In: Hepper, F.N. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. Volume 2. 2nd Edition. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 104–223.

• Holmgren, M., Poorter, L., Siepel, A., Bongers, F., Buitelaar, M., Chatelain, C., Gautier, L., Hawthorne, W.D., Helmink, A.T.F., Jongkind, C.C.H., Os-Breijer, H.J., Wieringa, J.J. & van Zoest, A.R., 2004. Ecological profiles of rare and endemic species. In: Poorter, L., Bongers, F., Kouamé, F.N’. & Hawthorne, W.D. (Editors). Biodiversity of West African forests. An ecological atlas of woody plant species. CAB International, Wallingford, United Kingdom. pp. 101–389.

• Robbrecht, E., Rohrhofer, U. & Puff, C., 1993. A survey of Bertiera (Rubiaceae), including a discussion of its taxonomic position. In: Robbrecht, E. (Editor). Advances in Rubiaceae macrosystematics. Opera Botanica Belgica 6. pp. 101–141.

• P.C.M. Jansen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Jansen, P.C.M., 2005. Bertiera spicata (Gaertn.f.) K.Schum. In: Jansen, P.C.M. & Cardon, D. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 3 April 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.