Global InformationNapoleonaea imperialis information
| Napoleonaea imperialis | |
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| 1848 illustration by Walter Hood Fitch[1] | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Ericales |
| Family: | Lecythidaceae |
| Genus: | Napoleonaea |
| Species: | N. imperialis
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| Binomial name | |
| Napoleonaea imperialis P.Beauv.
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| Synonyms | |
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Napoleonaea imperialis is a small, evergreen tropical West African tree in the family Lecythidaceae, native to Africa.[2]
It grows to some 6m in height, with a dense, low-branching crown, and occurs from Benin, Nigeria, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo southwards to Angola. The showy flowers have two inner rows of petals and vary in colour, usually creamy yellow along the circumference, with the center ranging from red to apricot to purple - they develop either on young branches or grow directly from the old wood of the trunk. The fruit is a berry, dark orange or reddish-brown containing a kidney-shaped seed. This species is popularly cultivated as an ornamental tree.[3]
The species was described in 1804, the same year its namesake (Napoleone di Buonaparte) crowned himself Emperor of the French.[4][5]
- ^ illustration by Walter Hood Fitch (1817–1892), Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, vol. 74 [ser. 3, vol. 4]: t. 4387
- ^ "Napoleonaea imperialis in Global Plants on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ^ GBIF. "Napoleonaea imperialis P.Beauv. - Checklist View". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
- ^ Palisot de Beauvois, Ambroise Marie François Joseph. 1804. Napoléone Impériale 1.
- ^ "Tropicos | Name - !Napoleonaea P. Beauv". www.tropicos.org. Retrieved 2017-07-18.