Brachystegia spiciformis

Brachystegia spiciformis, commonly known as zebrawood, or msasa, is a medium-sized African tree having compound leaves and racemes of small fragrant green flowers. The tree is broad and has a distinctive amber and wine red colour when the young leaves sprout during spring (August–September). It grows in savanna, both open woodland and closed woodland of Southern and Eastern Africa, mostly Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. The word msasa is commonly used as a proper name in African place names. The word also means 'rough plant' in Swahili. Other common names: mundu, myombo, mtondo (Tanzania), muputu (Zambia). The plant is known in the Venda language as mutsiwa, which means 'the one that is left behind'. An outlying population of Brachystegia has recently been discovered in the Soutpansberg mountains of northern South Africa. This tree is a protected species in South Africa.

A picture published with the record for Brachystegia spiciformis. What it shows has not been checked.

A. Engler · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

Time the record covers

At most 21 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.04 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.5 Mya2.1 Mya

3 occurrences of Brachystegia spiciformis on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Nkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°E

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The named rock units Brachystegia spiciformis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Brachystegia spiciformis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Brachystegia spiciformis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Brachystegia spiciformis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Brachystegia spiciformis

Credit
A. Engler
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Brachystegia spiciformis was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.