266-299 - SABONET

URTICACEAE
Boehmeria macrophylla Hornem.
Boehmeria platyphylla Hamilt. ex D.Don
Soft perennial shrub to 3 m tall, without stinging hairs, stems and leaves
more or less hairy; leaves opposite, 150–300 x 70–150 mm, base cordate
to tapering, petiole 25–150 mm long; flowers in axillary clusters; in deep
shade of montane forest, usually along streams; 300–2,000 m. Widespread
in tropical Africa and throughout the Old World tropics.
Source. Dowsett-Lemaire (1985: 316); White et al. (2001).
Malawi. Nyika Plateau, Chisanga Falls, 2000, Burrows & Burrows 6767
(MAL, PRE, UZL).
Elatostema monticola Hook.f.
Elatostema orientale Engl.
Annual or perennial herb with erect stems to 300 mm high, arising from
creeping rhizomes, without stinging hairs, stems somewhat zigzagging; leaves
alternate, confined to the upper part of the stem, asymmetric and slightly
curving towards the tip of the stem, more or less hairless; flowers stalkless,
axillary; in evergreen montane forest in moist shade of forest floor, sometimes
in shade in moist rocky places; 1,200–2,200 m. Zimbabwe northwards
through tropical Africa to Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
Source. Flora zambesiaca 9(6): 104 (1991).
Malawi. Nyika Plateau, Kasyaula and Zovochipolo Forests, without collecting
details (Dowsett-Lemaire 1985).
Zambia. Nyika Plateau, Chowo Forest, 2,000 m, 1991, Friis 6324 (C, K, MAL).
Girardinia diversifolia (Link.) Friis
Girardinia heterophylla Decne.; Girardinia condensata (Hochst. ex
Steud.) Wedd.
Large erect herb 1–3 m tall, completely covered in long stinging spines and
hairs; leaves lobed, margins toothed, upper surface glabrous, with some
stinging hairs, lower surface thinly hairy with stinging spines on the nerves;
male flowers in a slender axillary spike, female flowers in a dense elongate
cluster 100–150 mm long; in woodland or dry forest in rocky areas, or in
riverine forest; 850–2,050 m. Sporadic, but widespread in Africa, also in
Asia as far as China.
Malawi. Nyika National Park, without locality or collecting details (Mill
1979); Nkhonjera Hill (White et al. 2001: 581).
Laportea alatipes Hook.f.
Fleurya alatipes (Hook.f.) N.E.Br.
Annual or short-lived perennial herb or straggly shrub to 1.5 m high, set
with stinging hairs; leaves alternate, triangular to rhomboid or ovate, leaves
hairy or not; in understorey of montane forests and forests in ravines; 1,400–
2,200 m. Widespread, in the mountains of Cameroon, E. D.R.C., Ethio-
Valeriana capensis Thunb.
Erect perennial unbranched herb to ca 1 m tall, with fleshy rhizome and
fibrous roots; leaves mainly basal, but 3–5 reducing upwards, pinnate to
pinnatifid, terminal leaflets to 130 mm long, larger than the lateral ones,
shallowly dentate; flowers in terminal or axillary long-stalked clusters, white;
in marshy areas and streamsides in montane grassland; 1,800–2,700 m.
*Lantana trifolia L.
Herbaceous shrub 0.9–3 m tall, often with purplish hairy stems; leaves aromatic,
opposite or mostly in whorls of 3, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-elliptic,
50–140 x 20–60 mm, apex acute, crenate-serrate, scabrid-hairy above,
hairy below; flowers in hemispherical heads, pink or purple, sometimes
white to pink; fruit a small, roundish drupe, 2.5–3.5 mm diameter, mauve
to purple; in grassland, miombo woodland, bracken scrub, and on forest
margins; 0–2,400 m. Widespread in Africa, but probably introduced from
the Americas.
Source. F.T.E.A. Verbenaceae: 46 (1992).
280 Plants of the Nyika Plateau
URTICACEAE
VALERIANACEAE
VERBENACEAE
pia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and S. to South Africa. A fiercely stinging
plant.
Source. Flora zambesiaca 9(6): 93 (1991).
Malawi. Nyika National Park, Kasyaula Forest, 1981, Salubeni & Tawakali
3001 (SRGH).
Zambia. Nyika Plateau, Chowo Forest, 2,000 m, 1991, Friis 6322 (C, K,
MAL); ibid. Pawek 11249 (White et al. 2001).
Pilea rivularis Wedd.
Pilea ceratomera Wedd.
Perennial herb with creeping rhizome and erect, mostly unbranched stems
to 1 m tall, without stinging hairs; leaves opposite, but leaf pairs often
unequal in size; leaves glabrous; female flowers in tight clusters in leaf axils;
in high-rainfall evergreen montane forests, often in moist rocky places, ravines,
and along small streams; 1,800–2,100 m. Widely distributed in the
moist uplands and mountains of tropical Africa. This is a very variable
species, which has been subdivided by several authors.
Source. Flora zambesiaca 9(6): 98 (1991).
Malawi. Nyika National Park, Zovochipolo Forest, 2000, Burrows & Burrows
6898 (MAL, PRE, UZL).
Zambia. Nyika Plateau, Chowo Forest, 2,000 m, 1991, Friis 6323 (C, K,
MAL).
Pilea tetraphylla (Steud.) Blume
Erect annual herb to 200 mm tall, without stinging hairs; leaves opposite,
but apparently whorled at the stem apex, ovate, glabrous; female flowers
restricted to the top of the plant; in humid places in montane forest or in
moist sites among rocks; 1,650–2,800 m. Widespread in the mountain areas
of tropical Africa.
Source. Flora zambesiaca 9(6): 96 (1991).
Malawi. Nyika National Park, 2,300 m, 1973, Pawek 6640 (K, MO, SRGH).
Urera hypselodendron (Hochst. ex A.Rich.) Wedd.
Robust climber to 30 m high, stems with copious adventitious roots, stinging
hairs absent; leaves ovate, upper surface dark green, more or less hairless,
lower surface paler, hairy or at least along the nerves; a common climber
in upland and montane forest clearings, along forest edges, in riverine or
moist ravine forest; 1,450–2,150 m. From Zimbabwe northwards through
eastern Africa to Sudan and Ethiopia.
Source. Dowsett-Lemaire (1985: 320); Flora zambesiaca 9(6): 82 (1991).
Malawi. Nyika Plateau, Kafwimba Forest, 1,800 m, 1975, Pawek 10263
(K, MO, PRE, SRGH).
Zambia. Nyika Plateau, without locality, 2,150 m, 1958, Robson 351 (K,
SRGH); Chowo Forest, 6,100’, 1967, Richards 22697 (UZL).
Along the eastern mountain chain from South Africa to Kenya.
Source. Flora zambesiaca 7(1): 75 (1983).
Malawi. Nyika National Park, valley 2.5 miles S.W. of (Zambian) Rest House,
1958, Robson 250 (BM, K, LISC, PRE, SRGH); without locality or collecting
details (Mill 1979).
Zambia. Nyika Plateau, without locality, 1962, Fanshawe 7291 (K).
Malawi. Nyika National Park, without locality or collecting details (Mill
1979).
Lippia baumii Gürke var. nyassensis R.Fern.
Perennial many-stemmed herb to 650 mm or more, all parts with dense
silvery white hairs; leaves opposite, broadly ovate to rounded, usually longer
than the internodes; flowers in spike-like heads in upper axils, yellow, rarely
white, 3.5–4.5 mm long; in montane grassland and miombo woodland on
rocky hillsides; 1,800–2,100 m. Malawi and Tanzania.
Source. F.T.E.A. Verbenaceae: 32 (1992).