ZipcodeZoo.com

Catha edulis

(Cat, Jaad, Khat, Miraa, Qat)

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]
  • Domain: Eukaryota Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
    • Kingdom: Plantae Haeckel, 1866 - Plants

Unambiguous Synonyms:

  1. Catesbaea campanulata Sagra ex DC.
  2. Catesbaea fasciculata Northr.
  3. Catesbaea parviflora var. septentrionalis Krug & Urb.
  4. Celastrus edulis Vahl, Symb. Bot. 1: 21. 1790.
  5. Echinodendrum campanulatum (Sagra ex DC.) A.Rich.
  6. Echinodendrum parviflorum (Sw.) A.Rich.
  7. Scolosanthus parviflorus (Sw.) C.Wright

Notes:

Name Status: Accepted Name. Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication: Ench. bot. 575. 1841

Name verified on 10-Dec-1986 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 25-Jan-2002

Physical Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Celastraceae:

The Celastraceae are trees and shrubs comprising about 50 genera and 800 species that are sometimes climbing or vining. The leaves are simple and alternate or opposite; stipules are small and caducous or absent. The flowers are bisexual or sometimes functionally unisexual, actinomorphic, and are small and often greenish. The calyx comprises 4 or 5 usually basally connate sepals. The corolla is rarely absent or more commonly consists of 4 or 5 distinct petals. The androecium consists of 4 or 5 or rarely 10 distinct stamens that alternate with the petals. The gynoecium is a single compound pistil of 2-5 carpels, a single short style, and a superior or rarely half inferior ovary with 2-5 locules, each containing usually 2 axile ovules. An annular nectary disk surrounds and is usually adnate to the ovary. The fruit is a capsule, berry, samara, or drupe. -- Gerald Carr.

Species Catha edulis:

Evergreen shrubs, 1-5 m tall; young branches with white, fine lenticels. Petiole 3-8 mm; leaf blade elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 4-7 × 2-4 cm, leathery, base narrowly attenuate, slightly decurrent, margin obtusely serrate, apex obtusely shortly acuminate. Cymes single, small, 1.5-2 × as wide; peduncle 5-10 mm, 2-4-branched, branches short, less than 3 mm; pedicel 1-3 mm, up to 5 mm in fruit. Flowers 3-5 mm in diam.; sepals 5, triangular-ovate, ca. 1 mm; petals 5, white, narrowly ovate or narrowly oblong. Stamens 5, filamentous, shorter than corolla. Ovary free, surrounded by disk; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule orange-red, cylindric, ca. 8 × 3-4 mm, dehiscing from above, loculicidally in 3 valves, usually only 1 seed maturing per valve. Seeds black-brown, narrowly ovoid, 3-4 mm, with membranous basal wing. [source]

The name Catha edulis was not validly published by Forsskål (Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. cvii, 63. 1775); see Art. 46, Ex. 22 of the Vienna Code. [source]

Habit: Evergreen.

Images:

Distribution

[ Back to top ]

Range and Population

Native: .

Habitat

[ Back to top ]

 

Growth

[ Back to top ]

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun.

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Catha:

There are approximately 55 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus: C. abbottii · C. acuminata · C. alaternifolia · C. articulata · C. benthamii · C. buxifolia · C. campestris · C. cassinoides · C. crenata · C. cunninghamii · C. cymosa · C. decolor · C. dryandri · C. edulis (Cat) · C. emarginata · C. europaea · C. excisa · C. fasciculata · C. flexuosa · C. forskalei · C. fruticosa · C. glauca · C. grossulariae · C. heterophylla · C. heyneana · C. inermis · C. integer · C. integrifolia · C. lanceolata · C. leptopus · C. linearis · C. monosperma · C. montana · C. multiflora · C. ovata · C. paniculata · C. parviflora · C. parvifolius · C. patens · C. pyracantha · C. rigida · C. rothiana · C. rotundifolia · C. rufa · C. rupestris · C. senegalensis · C. spathulata · C. spathyphylla · C. spinosa · C. transvaalensis · C. trigyna · C. venenata · C. vitiensis · C. wallichii · C. zeylanica

Bibliography

[ Back to top ]
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences. 1959–. Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae. (F China) [lists as C. edulis Forssk.].
  • Cufodontis, G. 1953–1972. Enumeratio plantarum aethiopiae: Spermatophyta. (F EthiopCuf)
  • Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs. (CRC MedHerbs ed2)
  • Erhardt, W. et al. 2002. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 17. Auflage. (Zander ed17)
  • Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca. (F Zamb)
  • Fernandes, A. & E. J. S. M. Mendes. 1969–. Flora de Mocambique. (F Mocamb)
  • Friis, I. 1992. Forests and forest trees of Northeast Tropical Africa. Their natural habitats and distribution patterns in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. HMSO, Middlesex, UK.
  • Hilton-Taylor, C. 1996. Red Data List of southern African plants. Strelitzia 4. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria, South Africa.
  • Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening. (Dict Gard)
  • Katende, A.B. 1995. Annotations to: WCMC printout of Trees of Uganda dated 23 Nov. 1995.
  • Kunkel, G. 1984. Plants for human consumption. (L Edible Pl)
  • Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third. (Hortus 3)
  • Loes. 1942. Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien ed. 1.; ed. 2. 1925- (Nat Pflanzen) ed.2, 20b:154–155.
  • McGuffin, M. et al., eds. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. (Herbs Commerce ed2)
  • Miller, A.G. 1997. Completed data collection forms and comments concerning the threatened trees of Socotra and Yemen.
  • PROTABASE, the information base of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) - on-line resource. (PROTABASE)
  • Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants. (Dict Rehm)
  • Robyns, W. et al., eds. 1948–63. Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. (F CongoRB)
  • St. John, H. 1973. List and summary of the flowering plants in the Hawaiian islands. (L Hawaii)
  • Timberlake, J.R. 1996. Annotations to the conservation listing of trees of Zimbabwe.
  • Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. (F TE Afr)
  • Yousef, G. et al. 1995. Brit. J. Hosp. Med. 54:322–326.
  • Zohary, M. et al. 1980–. Conspectus florae orientalis. (L Orient)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors:

  • "Catha edulis". in Flora of China Vol. 11 Page 479. Published by Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
  • Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
  • Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2005. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [http://sn2000.taxonomy.nl/Taxonomicon/]. Access date: Nov 23, 2005
  • Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2007. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed March 24, 2007.
  • Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed February 28, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 4 providers.
  • Hilton-Taylor, C. 1998. Catha edulis. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org . Downloaded on 20 October 2006.
  • The International Plant Names Index. Accessed Jan 19, 2007.
  • USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 26, 2008)
  • USDA, NRCS. 2005. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

  • Herbarium of the University of Aarhus: The AAU Herbarium Database
  • Missouri Botanical Garden
  • Natural History Museum, Vienna - Herbarium W: Herbarium W
  • Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum

Identifiers:

Keep Exploring...

[ Back to top ]
Loading...
Loading...

What is this? Click to find out...

Loading...
Loading...
Last Revised: May 31, 2008