Phyllogeiton discolor

(Klotzsch) Herzog · species

image placeholder — illustration coming later

Plantae/Tracheophyta/Magnoliopsida/Rosales/Rhamnaceae/Phyllogeiton

At a glance

Occurrence records338

Data sources8

Biological traits31

DNA specimens0

eDNA detections6

Sources8 archives

Databases and archives Phyllogeiton discolor's data was compiled from.

WikipediaWikimedia Foundation3 languages↗

BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗

GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility338 records↗

ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI6 eDNA detections↗

LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗

NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗

PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotype

GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗

On this page6 sections

Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.

NarrativeWikipediaarticle

Traits & measurements2 literature sources31 traits

Chemical compositionLOTUS · NPASS45 compounds

Occurrence & distributionGBIF338 records

Environmental DNA1 datasets · 2 countries6 detections

Genome at a glanceGoaTgenome

01Narrative

Berchemia discolor, known as bird plum or brown ivory in English, is a tree native to southern and eastern Africa including Madagascar. It is a broadleaf tree growing to 18 m. The fruits, resembling dates, are edible with sweet flesh surrounding 1-2 flat seeds. They are occasionally sold in local markets, eaten fresh, or dried and pounded and then added to pearl millet pap for their sweet flavour. Animals like monkeys, baboons and birds also eat them. The leaves are eaten by elephants, giraffe and several antelopes, as well as livestock, such that many trees exhibit a distinct browse line. The wood is hard and attractive, suitable for furniture, charcoal, building material, beehives, crafts, and things like tool handles and pestles. Berchemia discolor is also used as a dye, fodder, ornamental tree and as herbal medicine to treat several human and animal diseases and ailments. For instance, the Himba people cook the bark against nausea and diarrhoea.

No narrative description available for this taxon yet.

02Traits & measurements

SourcesGIFTTRY

Size & morphology11

Leaf size280 mm²

Plant height12 m

⚠ sources differ — GIFT: 12 m · TRY: 20 m

Plant height max20 m

Plant height min3 m

Seed length11.25 mm

Seed mass303 mg

Seed mass max594 mg

Seed mass min100 mg

Seed volume470 mm³

Seed volume max470 mm³

Seed volume min470 mm³

Life cycle & reproduction4

Deciduousnessevergreen

Life spanperennial

Pollination modebiotic

Pollination syndromeinsect

Diet & foraging1

Parasiteindependent

Habitat & environment8

Aquaticterrestrial

Climberself-supporting

Elevation max1 465 m

Elevation min30 m

Epiphyteterrestrial

Growth formtree

Habitat GIFTwidespread in thicket, wooded grassland

Woodinesswoody

Physiology & chemistry6

Leaf n37.4 mg/g

Leaf p1.1 mg/g

Nitrogen fixingnon_nitrogen_fixer

Photosynthetic pathwayC3

Specific leaf area (SLA)6.05 mm²/mg

Wood density847 mg/cm³

Other traits1

Plant support typefree-standing

03Chemical composition45 compounds

Compounds documented for Phyllogeiton discolor across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").

Compound class profile5 classes

Anthraquinones and anthrones16

Pterocarpan9

Isoflavanones7

Ansa peptide alkaloids3

Isoflavanones $ Pterocarpan2

Documented compounds45 total

Tissue Source Quantified only

Compound	Amount	Source
(-)-Thermopsine	present	NPASS
(1R,12R)-17-[(E)-4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-enyl]-6,11,19-trioxapentacyclo[10.8.0.02,10.04,8.013,18]icosa-2(10),3,8,13,15,17-hexaene-15,16-diol	present	LOTUS
(1S,14S)-7,7-dimethyl-6,12,18,20,24-pentaoxahexacyclo[12.10.0.02,11.05,10.015,23.017,21]tetracosa-2(11),3,5(10),8,15,17(21),22-heptaene	present	LOTUS
(2R,7S)-7-(2,3-dihydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-5-hydroxy-2-methyl-2-(4-methylpent-3-enyl)-7,8-dihydropyrano[3,2-g]chromen-6-one	present	LOTUS
(2S)-N-[(3R,4R,7R,10Z)-7-[(2S)-butan-2-yl]-5,8-dioxo-3-phenyl-2-oxa-6,9-diazabicyclo[10.2.2]hexadeca-1(14),10,12,15-tetraen-4-yl]-2-(methylamino)-3-phenylpropanamide	present	LOTUS
(2S,3S)-2-(dimethylamino)-N-[(3R,4R,7R,10Z)-7-[(R)-hydroxy(phenyl)methyl]-5,8-dioxo-3-phenyl-2-oxa-6,9-diazabicyclo[10.2.2]hexadeca-1(14),10,12,15-tetraen-4-yl]-3-methylpentanamide	present	LOTUS
(3S)-3-(2-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-8,8-dimethyl-2,4-dihydropyrano[2,3-f]chromen-3-ol	present	LOTUS
(3S)-5-hydroxy-3-(6-hydroxy-1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-8,8-dimethyl-2,3-dihydropyrano[2,3-h]chromen-4-one	present	LOTUS
(3S)-Isodiscoloranone A	present	LOTUS
(3S,8S)-3-(2,3-dihydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-5-hydroxy-8-methyl-8-(4-methylpent-3-enyl)-2,3-dihydropyrano[2,3-h]chromen-4-one	present	LOTUS

05DNA & barcoding6 eDNA hits

A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Phyllogeiton discolor has left across the world's sequence archives.

At a glance

eDNA detections6

Countries2

06Genome at a glanceGoaT

The complete instruction manual Phyllogeiton discolor carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.

Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged

2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.

Ploidypolyploid inferred

Ploidy records — measured levels and diploid/polyploid inferences · click for sources

polyploid inferred1×PloiDB · family-scale

PloiDB · family-scale — chromEvol; reliability=1.000 ↗

07Deep time~3.22 Ma lineage

How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.

At a glance

DNA clock origin3.22 Ma TimeTree

When this lineage existed

How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.

DNA clock origin

08Occurrence & distribution

Record type338 records

Wild obs. + sensor156

Museum / vouchered182

Range

Area of Occupancy AOO844 km²

Wildobservation + sensor

Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.

Coordinate accuracy90% within 1 km

≤100 m 99≤1 km 9≤10 km 7>10 km 5

120 georeferenced · 36 without coordinates

Open the mapobservation + sensor156

Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence

Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.

Coordinate accuracy100% within 1 km

≤100 m 2

2 georeferenced · 180 without coordinates

Open the institutions mapphysical evidence182

Wildobservation + sensor

Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.

10Collections & institutions

Holding institutions4 of 16 geolocated

Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.

Institution	Specimens
Saint Louis, US	55
Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza (PBZT)location not on record	42
Plocation not on record	29
Centre National de la Recherche Appliquée au Developement Rurallocation not on record	8
Kew, GB	8
Centre National d'Application des Recherches Pharmaceutiques (CNARP)location not on record	7
Glocation not on record	7
WAGlocation not on record	5
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record	4
Embrapa Agrobiology Diazothrophic Microbial Culture Collectionlocation not on record	2
Durban, ZA	2
University of Hargeisalocation not on record	2
Stockholm, SE	1
MSB-3054location not on record	1
DBEVlocation not on record	1
Museo Entomologico de Leonlocation not on record	1

16 institutions · 175 of 182 vouchered records shown · 7 without an institution code

09Environmental DNA6 detections

Where the DNA of Phyllogeiton discolor was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.

Signal

Detections DNA found6

Studies independent surveys1

Countries2

Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections

Where its DNA was found

0 of 6 detections have coordinates

Open the map2 countries0

How strong is each trace?

DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.

Modelled climatemodelled

−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C

Temperature median24.0 °C 22.0–25.8

Seasonal swing summer↔winter7.60 °C

Max temp (day)28.9 °C 27.7–30.1

Min temp (night)18.6 °C 15.9–21.5

Precipitation60.9 mm/mo 6.10–148

Air humidity55.8 % 52.8–62.5

Moisture balance-85.0 mm/mo -109–-3.10

Vapour deficit1,257 Pa 1,203–1,330

Wind speed2.70 m/s 1.90–3.40

Cloud cover36.8 % 19.7–47.7

CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 4 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche

How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.

←→tabs

The Life Data · species page · narrative wired to read_model image placeholder · 3D tilt requires an http server (WebGL)