South Afncan Journal of Botany 2001, 67 69- 70 CopyngiJ/ ~ NISC Pty Ltd

Pnnted m Soulh A Inca - All nghts reserved SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL

OF BOTANY
/SSN 0254-6299

Short Communication

Three cotyledons on Schinziophyton rautanenii seedlings

FP Graz

Polytechnic of Namibia, Department of Agriculture, Private Bag 13388, Windhoek, Namibia

e-mail: pgraz@polytechnic. edu. na

Received 24 June 2000, accepted in revised form 9 October 2000

During a study of seedling growth in Schinziophyton seedlings had three cotyledons instead of the usual
rautanenil (Schinz) Hutch. Ex RadcL-Sm. some anom- two. This report of tricotyly in Euphorbiaceae is the first
alous seedlings developed from a batch of seeds col- for the family.
lected in the Rundu area of northern Namibia. These

Schinziophyton rautanenii (Schinz) Hutch. Ex Radci.-Sm.

(Radcliffe-Smith 1990), previously known as Ricinodendron
rautanenii Schinz and locally known as Mugongo or
Mangetti, is a dioecious, deciduous tree of the family
Euphorbiaceae (Coates Palgrave 1983). The fruit of the tree
is of significant socio-economic importance in Namibia. The
nuts provide a source of food, serve as a unit of exchange,
and their shells may be used as fuel for cooking (BOschel
1999).
The northern border of its core distribution range runs
through Angola, Zambia and Mozambique, while the south-
ern range limit runs through Northern Namibia (Ohangwena,
Omusati and Okavango regions into Caprivi), Botswana,
Zimbabwe and the Transvaal in South Africa (Peters 1987,
Lee 1973).
S. rautanenii is always found on Kalahari sand (Palmer
and Pitman 1972). Helgren ( 1982) found very high sand
contents. clay around 1% and the organic matter content
less than 1%.
The fruit of the tree is drupaceous (Keegan 1982); the ker-
nel is generally referred to as the nut. The fruit generally
contain one kernel, although in some areas trees may pro-
duce about 5% of fruit with two (Lee 1973). Seedless fruit
have also been encountered. The percentage of these fru it
may be quite high when nuts are collected early in the sea-
son (Lee 1973).
The breaking of the dormancy of the nut has been subject
for a number of studies (Biesele eta/. 1979, Keegan and van
Staden 1981 , Keegan 1982, Keegan eta/. 1989, Shikongo
in prep.}, and will not be described here.
Biesele eta/. (1979), Stanford (1979) and Keegan and van
Staden (1981) provide short descriptions for the develop-
ment of seedlings although there seem to be some discrep-
ancies. The description by Keegan and van Staden (1981) is Figure 1: Schinziophyton rautanenii seedling In the nursery or the
accepted here. In normal seedlings the hypocotyl grows to a national Forestry Research Centre, showing three cotyledons
length of approximately 5cm and is elliptical in cross-section. attached at the top of the hypocotyl.
70
The two cotyledons are stalked and attached to the
hypocotyl at the 'narrow' ends of the ellipse, opposite to one
another.
A batch of seeds were germinated by S. Shikongo in April
2000, as part of his M.Sc. studies at the University of
Namibia. The seeds were planted in April as part of a study
of the effect of shade intensity on seedling growth. Four
seedlings had three cotyledons (Figure 1). These were
arranged evenly around the hypocotyl (similar to the points
of a Mercedestm star). The cross section of such a
hypocotyl was not ellipsoid as on the normal seedling, but
had three thickenings around its core.
The original supplier of the seed, the National Forestry
Research Centre, Namibia, could only indicate that the seed
were obtained from the Rundu area of the Okavango region
in northern Namibia. No other information could be obtained,
with regard to specific location and specific collection date.
One of these seedlings is currently being dried for for-
warding to the National Botanical Research Institute in
Windhoek, Namibia.
References
Biesele M, Bosque! J, Stanford G (1979) A Kalahari food staple.
Ricinodendron rautanenii. In: Goodin JR, Northington OK {eds)
Arid land plant resources. International Center for Arid and Semi-
Arid Land Studies, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, pp 341-355
Busche! D (1999) A study of resource utilisation: a case from
Namibia, Mpungu Constituency, Kavango District, Northern
Edited by GF Smith
Graz
Namibia, CRIAA SA-DC Report. Windhoek. Namibia
Coates Palgrave K (1983) Trees of Southern Africa. Struik
Publishers, Cape Town, pp 432
Helgren OM (1982) Edaphic con text of the Mongongo
(Ricinodendron rautanenil) in the northwestern Kalahari. South
African Journal of Science 78 : 131-132
Keegan AB, Van Staden J (1981) Dormancy and germination of the
Mankettl nut Ricinodendron rautanenii Schinz. South African
Journal of Science 77: 262-264
Keegan AB (1982) Dormancy and germination of the Manketti nut,
Ricinodendron rautanenii. PhD Thesis, University or Natal.
Pietermaritzburg
Keegan AB, Kelly KM , Van Staden J (1989) Ethylene involvement in
dormancy release or Ricinodendron rautanenii seeds. Annals or
Botany 63: 229-234.
Lee RB (1973) Mogongo: The ethnography of a major wild food
resource. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 2: 307-321
Peters CR {1987) Ricinodendron rautanenii (Euphorbiaceae):
Zambezian wild food plant for all seasons. Economic Botany 41 :
494-502
Radcliffe-Smith A (1990) Notes on African Euphorbiaceae XXII:The
genus Schinziophyton. Kew Bulletin 45: 157:160.
Shikongo S (in prep) M.Sc Thesis, University or Namibia, Windhoek
Stanford G (1979) Preliminary findings on germination of
Mongongo seeds. The Plant Propagator 25: 2-4