Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq.
T. trilocularis Roxb., T. riparia Hochst., Bartramia rhombifolia Stokes
Eng.: Burr bush, diamond burrbark. Ara. (Sudan): Alloseg, alluseig, luseig.
Perennial plant, with woody base, 0.5-1.2 m, green, covered with stellate or simple hairs. Stem highly branched. Leaves 3-8 × 2.5-7 cm, upper leaves usually rhomboid-ovate, middle and lower leaves trilobed, with acute apex and irregularly serrated margin, with glandular basal teeth; hairy on the underside. Petiole up to 4.5 cm. Stipules 3-4 mm, subulate. Flowers 5-6 mm in diameter, subsessile. Sepals 3-4 mm, aristate at the apex, hairy on the outside. Petals of the same size as the sepals or slightly smaller, golden yellow, pilose at the base. Stamens usually 15, rarely less. Fruit in globose or subglobose capsule, indehiscent, 5-6 mm, tomentose, with hooked spines, with several locules, 2 or more seeds.
Flowering:
After rainfall, during autumn-winter towards the coast of the Red Sea.
Fruiting:
Late autumn and winter.
Habitat:
Clearings and trails in wet forests, secondary forests and thickets, riverbanks, degraded shrubby formations, usually in the shade. It is found from sea level to 2,200 m in altitude.
Distribution:
Pantropical nitrophilous species. This is the most common and widespread Triumfetta species in Africa. To the N it reaches the Jebel Elba.
Observations:
A similar but only slightly woody species is T. flavescens Hochst. ex A.Rich.; it is well differentiated for its yellowish-green colouration, leaves rarely lobed, with hairs on both sides, the basal part dentate, eglandular, and ovoid fruit, 1-locular with 1 seed. It is found along riverbeds and hillsides of the SE corner of Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, Arabia. In the area of this project, it flowers from November to January and fruits from late autumn to winter.
Conservation status:
Fairly rare species, but widely distributed. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) T. flavescens is listed as “Rare”.