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Scientific Name
Family
Common Names
Origin
Naturalised Distribution
Habitat
Habit
Distinguishing Features
Stems and Leaves
Flowers and Fruit
Reproduction and Dispersal
Environmental Impact
Legislation
Management
Similar Species
Print Fact Sheet
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Click on images to enlarge

infestation (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

infestation (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

habit of a young tree (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

habit of mature tree (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

habit in fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

main trunk with furrowed bark (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

older stems with large spines (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

younger stems and thorns (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

flower clusters (Photo: Land Protection, QDNRW)

flowers (Photo: Chris Gardiner)

leaf undersides and immature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

fruit at various stages of maturity (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

young seedlings (Photo: Chris Gardiner)

Ziziphus mauritiana

Scientific Name

Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.

Family

Rhamnaceae

Common Names

ber, chinee apple, Chinese date, cottony jujube, Indian cherry, Indian date, Indian jujube, Indian plum, jujube, sour jujube, Yunnan jujube, Yunnan spiny jujube

Origin

This species is thought to have originated in India, and is considered native to southern Asia, eastern Africa and many islands in the Indian Ocean.

Naturalised Distribution

Chinee apple (Ziziphus mauritiana ) is widespread in the northern parts of Australia, but is most common in the northern and central regions of Queensland. It is also scattered throughout the northern parts of the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia, and has been recorded from south-eastern Queensland.

It is also naturalised in southern Africa, south-eastern Aisa (i.e. Malaysia and the Philippines), tropical South America, Central America (e.g. Belize, Guatemala and Panama), southern USA (i.e. California and Florida), the Caribbean, the Cape Verde Islands, and on La Réunion and Fiji.

Habitat

A weed of pastures, grasslands, open woodlands, floodplains, inland watercourses, roadsides, disturbed sites and waste areas in semi-arid, tropical and sub-tropical regions.

Habit

A thorny and densely branched large shrub or small tree, with a spreading habit, growing 3-10 m tall and up to 10 m across.

Distinguishing Features

Stems and Leaves

The young stems have a zig-zagging nature, are finely hairy (i.e. pubescent or tomentose) and are greenish or whitish in colour. They usually bear a single curved thorn (5-20 mm long) and a leaf at each joint. Older stems have a dark grey to blackish coloured bark that is rough and somewhat furrowed.

The alternately arranged leaves are borne on stalks (i.e. petioles) 2-16 mm long. These leaves are relatively small (20-80 mm long and 8-50 mm wide) and somewhat oval (i.e. sub-elliptic) in shape or egg-shaped in outline (i.e. ovate). Their upper surfaces are dark green in colour, hairless (i.e. glabrous) and glossy, while their lower surfaces are covered with whitish or rusty coloured hairs (i.e. they are tomentose). These leaves have three conspicuous main veins and finely toothed (i.e. serrulate) or almost entire margins.

Flowers and Fruit

The inconspicuous flowers (5-8 mm across) are greenish, greenish-yellow or whitish in colour. They may either have male and female parts (i.e. bisexual flowers) or only male parts (i.e. staminate flowers). These flowers are usually arranged in small loose clusters in the leaf forks (i.e. axils), with each cluster usually containing 10-15 flowers. The individual flowers are borne on short hairy stalks (i.e. tomentose pedicels) up to 4 mm long and consist of five hairy sepals (1.2-1.5 mm long) that are fused at the base (i.e. into a five-toothed calyx tube), five membranous petals (about 1.2 mm long), five stamens, and the bisexual flowers also have an ovary with two or three styles. Flowering mostly occurs from late summer through to early winter.

The fruit consists of a large hard stone surrounded by a white fleshy pulp and a surface skin (i.e. it is a drupe). These fruit (15-50 mm across) are rounded (i.e. sub-globular) or egg-shaped (i.e. ovoid) and turn from green to pale yellow, orange, red or reddish-brown in colour as they mature. The hard stone contains two rounded (i.e. sub-globular) or oval shaped (i.e. ellipsoid) seeds (6-8 mm long) that have a hard outer skin.

Reproduction and Dispersal

This species reproduces entirely by seed.

These seeds are most commonly dispersed by large birds and other animals (e.g. livestock, feral pigs and native animals) that eat the fruit.

Environmental Impact

Chinee apple (Ziziphus mauritiana) is regarded as an environmental weed in Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is actively managed by community groups in Queensland and was recently listed as a priority environmental weed in five Natural Resource Management regions.

Legislation

This species is declared under legislation in the following states and territories:

Management

For information on the management of this species see the following resources:

Similar Species

Chinee apple (Ziziphus mauritiana) is similar to two closely related native species (i.e. Ziziphus oenopolia and Ziziphus quadrilocularis) and strychnine tree (Strychnos lucida). These species can be distinguished by the following differences: