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Z. mauritiana is a small to medium-sized, single or multi-stemmed, spiny shrub or tree, which is almost evergreen, but is deciduous during the dry season. It has a round, spreading crown. It can reach up to 12 m tall and 30 cm diameter at breast height, but is highly variable in size and general appearance. Old protected trees of this species occasionally reach 24 m tall and 1.8 m diameter (von Carlowitz, 1991;Hocking, 1993). The bole is generally short, reaching 3 m in length at most. The bark is dark grey, dull black or reddish with long vertical fissures, reddish and fibrous inside (von Carlowitz, 1991). The branches are spreading and droop at the ends. The twigs are usually softly tomentose when young (Parker, 1956;Gupta, 1993). Z. mauritiana has a deep and lateral root system. Stipules are mostly spines, in pairs with one hooked and one straight, or both hooked, or rarely with neither as a spine. The leaves are simple, shining green above and whitish tomentose beneath, due to persistent dense hairs (occasionally glabrous), margins minutely serrulate, leaf shape ranging from almost round to an elongated ellipse, commonly sub-orbicular to ovate-oblong, rounded at both ends, highly variable in shape and size but always with three basal nerves and two stipular spines, one long and straight, the other small and curved back, and often brown in colour. Spineless types are not uncommon in this species (Singh, 1989). The leaves are solitary or in pairs, from 2 to 6 cm in length (occasionally 1.3-12.0 cm) and 1.5-5.9 cm at the widest point (occasionally 0.4-6.5 cm wide). Size variation is related to site quality and position on the tree, the leaves on vigorous new shoots being the largest (Parker, 1956;Hocking, 1993). Flowers are minute, greenish-white or yellow, hermaphrodite, in sessile or shortly peduncled axillary cymes, and are insect pollinated (Patel et al., 1988;Devi et al., 1989) with an acrid smell (Azam-Ali et al., 2006). The fruit is initially green and turns yellow, orange and red on ripening;being a drupe containing sour-sweet pulp and a hard stone. It varies in size from 1.2 to 3.7 cm long, and is generally globose or ovoid, and glossy. The fruits on wild plants reach about 2 cm in diameter, and on cultivated varieties can exceed 5 cm long. The stone in the fruit is irregularly furrowed and usually contains two cells and two seeds (Hocking, 1993), which have papery testa.

Related crop

  • Ziziphus mauritiana
  • Eucalyptus

Related invasive species

  • Yellows

Related Farm Practice

  • Agricultural land
  • Invasive species
  • Pastures
  • Fallow
Has Cabi datasheet ID
57556
Hosts

Z. mauritiana is not generally a weed of agricultural land, as it is removed during cultivation;however, it is an invasive species in some rangeland and pastures, reducing the presence of other forage species. It is occasionally a weed of natural forests, as in Australia, where Z. mauritiana has been recorded invading eucalyptus woodland (Weber, 2003) and abandoned or fallow land (Morton, 1987).

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