Annickia le-testui
Treelet of 2-8 m tall; young shoots, petioles and pedicels tomentose but glabrescent, rusty; older branches grey-brown to almost black, striate; internodes 0.5-3.8(-5.1) cm long. Indumentum of simple, bifid, fasciculate and stellate hairs, 0.1-1.2 mm long. Leaves: petiole 3-8 mm long; leaf-blade narrowly elliptic to obovate, 10-29.5 cm long, 3.5-10.5 cm wide, subcoriaceous, base slightly cuneate to rounded, apex blunt with a small point to acuminate; midrib glabrous above; lateral nerves 9-13 pairs, red-brown below; upper leaf surface brown to almost grey, glabrous; lower leaf surface dull yellow-brown, pubescent, hairs appressed and up to 0.3 mm long to erect and up to 1.0 mm long, predominantly bifid and stellate and a few simple ones, pointing in all directions. Flowers: pedicel 0.4-1.4 mm long; bracteoles 2, 3-4 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, cadoucous; sepals triangular, pointed, 5-9 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, outside pubescent, indumentum more reddish than that of petals, glabrous inside; petals ovate to broadly ovate, 1.2-2.6 cm long, 0.7-1.2 cm wide, outside tomentose, yellowish green, inside with a thin line of indumentum on the Y-shaped ridge; stamens 60-125, 2 mm long; carpels 20-35, 2.5 mm long, entirely pubescent; old carpels bright green when fresh. Fruit: stipes 0.8-1.9 cm long, with a few simple hairs; monocarps 8-20, ellipsoid, mucronate, 1.9-2.5 cm long, 1.0-1.4 cm in diameter, first green when fresh, turning black at maturity, with very few simple hairs.
An endemic of the Lower Guinean centre of endemism occurring from southern Cameroon to Gabon and the north-western part of Congo (Brazzaville).
Growing in evergreen, lowland, primary or sometimes secondary forest at 300-700 m altitude; also occurring on inselbergs.