[[File:Burkea africana tls M.E. Bakker Insidewood.jpg|thumb|wood in tangential section]]
[[File:Burkea africana rls J. Ilic Insidewood.jpg|thumb|wood in radial section]]
<big>''[[Burkea africana]]'' Hook.</big>
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== Vernacular names ==
*Burkea, wild syringa, wild seringa, red syringa, sand syringa (En).
== Origin and geographic distribution ==
== Description ==
*Deciduous small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall; bole branchless for up to 7 m, up to 80 cm in diameter; bark surface scaly and fissured, grey to dark greyish brown, inner bark fibrous, pink to dull red or purplish brown; crown open, often flat, with spreading branches; twigs thick, with conspicuous leaf scars, reddish brown hairy when young. *Leaves alternate, clustered near the ends of twigs, bipinnately compound with (1–)2–5(–7) pairs of pinnae; stipules minute, soon falling; petiole and rachis together 7–32 cm long; petiolules 2–5 mm long; leaflets alternate, 5–15(–18) per pinna, usually elliptical, 1.5–7.5 cm × 0.5–4 cm, slightly asymmetrical at base, obtuse to slightly notched at apex, silvery short-hairy but becoming glabrous. *Inflorescence an elongate spike 5–30 cm long, crowded near the ends of twigs, pendulous, many-flowered. *Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, sweet-scented, sessile; calyx with short tube and rounded lobes c. 1.5 mm long; petals free, obovate-oblong, 4–5 mm long, glabrous, white to cream-coloured; stamens 10, free, c. 5 mm long; ovary superior, ovoid, densely hairy, 1-celled, style short, stigma funnel-shaped. *Fruit an elliptical, strongly flattened pod 3–8 cm × 2–3 cm, distinctly stiped, pale brown to reddish brown, indehiscent, 1-seeded. *Seed ellipsoid, flattened, 9–12 mm × 7–8 mm, brown, with a cavity at both sides.
== Other botanical information ==
*Mineral inclusions: 136: prismatic crystals present; 142: prismatic crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells; (143: prismatic crystals in fibres).
{{right|(E.A. Obeng, P. Baas & H. Beeckman)}}
== Growth and development ==
== Author(s) ==
* A. Maroyi , Botany Department, Rhodes University, Box 94, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
== Correct citation of this article ==