Clausena anisata (Clausena anisata)

Description

Clausena anisata (Willd.) Hook. f. ex Benth. is a deciduous shrub or small tree, belonging to the Rutaceae or Citrus family, and widespread in the Afrotropic ecozone or Sub-Saharan Africa, but absent from the drier regions. It is also found in tropical and South-East Asia, growing in India and Sri Lanka and extending as far as Queensland in north-eastern Australia and some Pacific islands. It is cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia. As with other plants useful to mankind its large range of medicinal properties has led to a global distribution and its growth wherever the climate is suitable. It grows in higher-rainfall regions in savanna, thickets, riverine forest, disturbed areas and secondary forest, up to an altitude of 3000 m. The leaves, which are foetid when bruised, give rise to the common name 'Horsewood' or the more descriptive Afrikaans common name 'Perdepis', meaning 'horse urine'. This species is one of 25 in the genus Clausena, first described in 1768 by the Dutch botanist Nicolaas Laurens Burman, and named for the Norwegian clergyman, Peder Claussøn Friis (1545-1614), the translator of the Icelandic historian and poet, Snorri Sturluson. Up to 10 m tall, this species has smooth, thin, grey-green bark becoming brownish and mottled with age. Young parts are puberulous. The compound leaves are up to 30 cm long and stipules are absent. Leaflets are 11–37 in number, alternate to sub-opposite, and ovate to narrowly elliptical in shape, with a markedly asymmetric, rounded or cuneate base. The leaflet apex is obtuse or notched, and the margins are entire or crenulate. The leaf surfaces are densely covered with embedded, pellucid glands, which are strongly aromatic when bruised. The inflorescence is a hairy, lax axillary panicle. The scented flowers are bisexual, regular, and 4-merous. Sepals are about 1 mm long, while the elliptical petals are 3–7 mm long, concave, and cream to yellowish-white in colour. The 8 stamens have filaments 2–6 mm long, which are thickened at their base. Fruit an ovoid, fleshy berry, 3.3–7 mm in diameter, single-seeded and turning red or purplish-black when mature. Timber is yellowish-white, elastic and dense (0.8 g/cm3).