Garcinia gabonensis

Description. Dioecious shrub or small tree, up to 4 m high; latex transparent to greenish; branches circular in cross section, fissured, often reddish when dry; twigs flattened on cross section, smooth. Leaves opposite; petiole (4 -) 5 - 10 (- 12) mm, smooth, slightly canaliculated above, with indistinct foveola of about 1 mm long; blade generally oblanceolate, sometimes elliptic or rarely ovate, (7 -) 8 - 15 (- 16) x (2 -) 2.5 - 5 (- 6) cm, pointed at base, caudate-acuminate at apex, coriaceous to papery, glabrous; midrib prominent below, canaliculate above, lateral veins 7 - 13 pairs, visible on both surfaces, towards the margin clearly connected in distinct loops and united into an intramarginal vein that runs at (1 -) 2 - 3 mm from the margin, tertiary veins laxly reticulate, indistinct; resin ducts normally indistinct except in young leaves, subparallel to the midrib. Inflorescence axillary, of few-flowered fascicles; bracts many, small (<1 mm long). Flower 4 - merous, unisexual; pedicel slender, 2 (- 3) mm; sepals obovate, two external ones about 2 mm long, two internal ones about 4 mm long, greenish to yellowish; petals obovate, about 4 mm long, yellowish or greenish to white. Male flower: stamens 8 - 14, free, inserted in a ring around the pistillode, filament broadened and flat, white, anthers ellipsoid, strongly curved; pistillode broadly triangular-obovoid, longitudinally ribbed, stylode simple and slender, 1 - 2 mm long. Female flower: disc annular, flattened and pressed against the ovary; ovary globose, about 3 mm in diameter; stigma peltate, lobed, 2 mm wide. Fruit ovoid to subglobose, 5 - 11 mm in diameter, greenish, smooth, with persistent sepals at base.