"Schousboea" redirects here. As described by H.C.F. Schumacher

Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher

Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher , was a Danish surgeon, botanist and professor of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen...

 and Peter Thonning

Peter Thonning

Peter Thonning was a Danish physician and botanist.He was sent to Ghana by the Danish government to supervise the plantations of that colony, and he lived there from 1799 to 1803. His herbarium was destroyed during the shelling of Copenhagen by the British in 1807...

, this is a synonym of Alchornea

Alchornea

Alchornea is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae. It comprises 70 tropical species.-Synonyms:*Bleekeria Miq.*Bossera Leandri*Caelebogyne J.Sm.*Cladodes Lour.*Hermesia Humb. & Bonpl....

.

The bushwillows or combretums, Combretum, make up the type genus

Type genus

In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

 of the family Combretaceae

Combretaceae

Combretaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Myrtales. The family includes about 600 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in 18 genera. The family includes the leadwood tree, Combretum imberbe. Three genera, Conocarpus, Laguncularia and Lumnitzera, grow in mangrove habitats ....

. The genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 comprises about 370 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s and shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s, roughly 300 of which are native to tropical

Tropics

The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately  N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at  S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...

 and southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, about 5 to Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

, some 25 to tropical Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and approximately 40 to tropical America. The genus is absent from Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Though somewhat reminiscent of willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

s (Salix) in their habitus

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

, they are not particularly close relatives of these.

Ecology

Bushwillow trees often are important plants in their habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

. Savannah

Savannah

Savannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-People:* Savannah King, a Canadian freestyle swimmer* Savannah Outen, a singer who gained popularity on You Tube...

s in Africa, in particular those growing on granitic

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 soils, are often dominated by Combretum and its close relative Terminalia

Terminalia (plant)

Terminalia is a genus of large trees of the flowering plant family Combretaceae, comprising around 100 species distributed in tropical regions of the world. This genus gets it name from Latin terminus, referring to the fact that the leaves appear at the very tips of the shoots.Trees of this genus...

. Other species of this genus are a major component of Southwestern Amazonian moist forests

Southwestern Amazonian moist forests

The Southwestern Amazonian Moist Forests , contains some of the richest and largest tracts of intact tropical rainforest found in the entire Amazon basin...

. This genus contains several species that are pollinated by mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s other than bat

Bat

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...

s, which is quite rare indeed. But most species are more conventionally pollinated by insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s or bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s.

Typhlodromus combretum, a mite

Mite

Mites, along with ticks, are small arthropods belonging to the subclass Acari and the class Arachnida. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of ticks and mites is called acarology.-Diversity and systematics:...

 of the family Phytoseiidae

Phytoseiidae

Phytoseiidae is a family of mites which feed on thrips and other mite species. They are often used as a biological control agent for managing mite pests.-Subfamilies:* Amblyseiinae Muma, 1961* Phytoseiinae Berlese, 1916* Typhlodrominae Scheuten, 1857...

, was discovered on a bushwillow plant and is named after this genus. Other herbivore

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

s that eat Combretum foliage include the caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

s of the Brown Awl (Badamia exclamationis) which is found on C. albidum, C. latifolium and C. ovalifolium; those of the Orange-tailed Awl (Bibasis sena) are recorded from C. extensum and C. latifolium.

Use by humans

Several species are used in African or Indian traditional medicine. Combretastatin

Combretastatin

The combretastatins are a class of natural stilbenoid natural phenols. A variety of different natural combretastatin molecules are present in the bark of Combretum caffrum, commonly known as South African Bush Willow...

s, found in the South African Bushwillow

Combretum caffrum

Combretum caffrum is the Eastern Cape South African Bushwillow tree.-Biochemistry:In C. caffrum, combretastatins A-1, A-4 and B-1 can be found....

 (C. caffrum) and presumably other species of this genus, are under study for the therapy of tumor

Tumor

A tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...

s, including anaplastic thyroid cancer

Anaplastic thyroid cancer

Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a form of thyroid cancer which has a very poor prognosis due to its aggressive behavior and resistance to cancer treatments.-Presentation:...

 for which there is little or no approved treatment at present. At least C. molle is also recorded to contain large quantities of punicalagins

Punicalagins

Punicalagin is an ellagitannin, a polyphenol compound which are isomers of 2,3--hexahydroxydiphenoyl-4,6--gallagyl-D-glucose, hydrolysable tannins with a molecular weight of 1084. They are found in forms alpha and beta in pomegranates...

, the antioxidant

Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...

s well-known from the Pomegranate

Pomegranate

The pomegranate , Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between five and eight meters tall.Native to the area of modern day Iran, the pomegranate has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. From there it spread to Asian areas such as the Caucasus as...

 (Punica granatum), a somewhat related plant. These chemicals, too, are suspected to suppress cancer growth.

The famous botanist George Don

George Don

George Don was a Scottish botanist.George Don was born at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland on 29 April 1797. His father, also named George Don, was Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1802 and his mother was Caroline Clementina Stuart. George was the elder brother of David...

 studied this genus extensively. The Luvuvhu River in southern Africa was named after the River Bushwillow (C. erythrophyllum

Combretum erythrophyllum

A large tree found in the bush along the river banks in southern Africa.- Common names : ; ; ;River combretum, River Bushwillow.C. glomeruliflorum-Description:...

), locally known as muvuvhu.