Dodonaea viscosa (L.) Jacq.
Ptelea viscosa L., D. angustifolia L.
Eng.: Hopseed bush, hopbush. Fre.: Dodonée visqueuse. Ara.: Neeh.
Shrub or small tree, evergreen, trimonoecious, glabrous, 1-4 m in height (occasionally reaching 9 m). Leaves alternate, coriaceous in texture, 3-8 × 1-2.2 cm, sessile or shortly petiolate, simple, entire, with dentate or undulate margins, from oblanceolate to elliptic, obtuse, apiculate, with glandular indumentum on both sides and covered in a viscous exudate. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, arranged in lax panicles, with glandular pedicels, 1-1.5 cm. Flowers without petals (like all species of the genus). Male flowers with 3-4 sepals c. 2 mm, 7(9) stamens and a rudiment ovary. Female flowers with free and green sepals, bilocular ovary, oblong, flattened and glandular and styles with 2-3 lobes. Bisexual flowers with 3-4 sepals c. 2 mm, yellow-greenish, anthers 1.5-2 mm. Fruit a capsule of 1.5 cm, papery, discoid, with 2-4 wings 4-7 mm wide. Seeds 2 in each locule, 2-3 mm, subglobose, black.
Flowering:
Information not available.
Fruiting:
Information not available.
Habitat:
Forest margins, secondary shrubland and pastures.
Distribution:
Pantropical taxon with a distribution in North Africa restricted to the coastal mountainous regions of the Red Sea, SE of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. Currently, it has 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) it is listed as “Rare”.