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Schotia brachypetala
Also called Weeping Boer Bean, Fuchsia Tree, African Walnut, Boer Bean, Hottentot's Bean Tree, African Greenheart, Fuchia Tree
Schotia brachypetala is a leguminous flowering tree from southern Africa, grown as a shade and ornamental tree in warm regions. It is easy to grow in well-drained soil and tolerates poor soil and drought, but grows fastest with regular moisture.
Schotia brachypetala, the weeping boer-bean, is a leguminous flowering tree in the family Fabaceae (bean family/pod-bearing family/legumes) and the subfamily Detarioideae. The woodland tree is native to Africa south of the Zambezi River, where it occurs at middle altitudes. It is well-suited as shade or ornamental tree in warmer regions, and is consequently widely cultivated in gardens and parks. It is named for the copious nectar that drips from its flowers, which attracts various species of birds and insects. It is known by various other names, including tree fuchsia, African greenheart and African walnut.
The weeping boer-bean is easily grown, and is remarkably hardy in both poor soil and very dry conditions. Adverse conditions will affect the growth rate, with poor conditions considerably slowing the speed of growth. In good quality, well-drained soil with plenty of moisture the tree grows very quickly, easily reaching 5 metres within a few years. It is fairly widely cultivated outside its natural range in warm temperate and subtropical climates, particularly in Australia, where it is a common street tree, and sometimes still anachronistically called a Hottentot tree. It has been planted also in Spain.
A native of the southern parts of Africa, mainly sub-tropical. Its northernmost extent is the Mashonaland escarpment just south of the Zambezi valley in Zimbabwe at about 17°S. It grows southwards to the eastern parts of South Africa, generally not near the coast but usually on hills away from the coastal winds and further inland. Its southernmost extent is southwest of East London in the Eastern Cape of South Africa at about 33°S. It is a tree of woodland rather than forest.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Schotia brachypetala by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
