Maerua angolensis subsp. angolensis leaves

The simple Maerua angolensis subsp. angolensis leaves spiral around the stems or are alternate in their stem positions. The tree is deciduous. The leaves grow on stalks from 5 mm to 30 mm long, nearly as long as the blades. The coloured stalk may be yellowish to mauve brown and drooping with a swelling at a bend nearer the leaf than the stem and sometimes channelled in its upper part.

The leaf-shape is elliptic to lanceolate, the tip usually rounded, occasionally notched with mucro, bristle-tip or hair-tip protruding and the base broadly tapering to rounded. Leaves with acutely pointed tips and some with narrowly elliptic shapes are also seen. The margins are entire.

The dark green blades are glossy on top, paler below, usually hairless but not always, soft and thinly textured. The midrib is whitish, prominent below. The few ascending lateral veins are usually visible, curving in before reaching the margins. Net-veining is sometimes clear to see, better on the upper surface than below. These tiny veins meander in angular, rounded or irregularly reticulated fashion.

Leaf dimensions are 2,5 cm to 7 cm long and 1,3 cm to 5,5 cm wide, large on coppices (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993; iNaturalist; www.zimbabweflora.co.zw).