Weeping Boer Bean

Name
Weeping Boer Bean [Schotia brachypetala]Other names: Huilboerboon, Tree Fuchsia, and African Walnut
Introduction

Description
The Weeping Boer Bean is a handsome, medium to large tree with a wide-spreading, densely branched, rounded crown. It has a single trunk that sometimes branches low down. Trees can reach a height of 22 m, but most commonly grow 11 to 16 m with a spread of 10 to 15 m. The bark is rough and brown or grey brown. The leaves are compound, with 4 to 6 pairs of leaflets, each with an entire, wavy margin. The foliage is reddish to coppery when young, turning bright green and maturing to a glossy dark green. In warm frost-free areas this tree is evergreen, but in colder regions it is deciduous, losing its leaves for a short period in winter to spring.Flowers

Fruit
The fruit is a hard, flattened, woody, dark brown pod containing flattened, pale brown approximately 20 mm diameter seeds with a conspicuous yellow aril. The pods split on the tree, maturing during late summer to autumn (February to May).Uses
Schotia brachypetala attracts a wide variety of birds, animals and insects and is a noisy, hive of activity while in flower. Nectar-feeding birds, particularly sunbirds, bees and insects feed on the nectar. Insect-eating birds feed on the insects attracted by the flowers. Starlings, monkeys and baboons eat the flowers, monkeys eat the seeds, birds eat the aril on the seeds and the leaves are browsed by game and black rhino also eat the bark. The latter visitors of course are only expected in game reserves.
Habitat
The Weeping Boer Bean occurs in warm dry areas in bushveld, deciduous woodland and scrub forest most often on the banks of rivers and streams or on old termite mounds.Where they are found
They are found at lower altitudes from around Umtata in the Eastern Cape, through KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Mpumalanga, Northern Province and into Mozambique and Zimbabwe.Latin name
Schotia brachypetala.The specific name brachypetala means 'having short petals' in Greek and refers to the flowers which are unique among Schotia species in that the petals are partly or completely reduced to linear filaments.