by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
A team of botanists with members from Muse–Museo delle Scienze, Udzungwa Corridor LTD, Via Grazia Deledda and the National Museum of Kenya has discovered a new species of tree growing in the mountainous rain forests of Tanzania. In their paper published in the journal Phytotaxa, the group describes how and where the tree was found and its characteristics.
Tanzania is a country located on the southeastern coast of Africa and belongs to the African Great Lakes region. The Udzungwa Mountains, part of the Eastern Arc Mountain Chain, are home to many wildlife preserves.
Members of the team were hiking in the Uluti Village and the Boma la Mzinga Forest Reserves when they came upon a large tree back in 2019 that none of them recognized. Its flowers had thin white petals with tiny yellow bulbs on the tips. Intrigued by their find, they took pictures and collected leaf samples for study back in their lab.
They have been able to confirm that the tree is a species that has not been recognized by the scientific community. The team named it Tessmannia princeps. In addition to its massive girth, the tree grows a little taller than others around it in the rainforest, which is why the team gave it the name "princeps"—a Latin word meaning "most eminent."
More recently, team members returned to the site and found approximately 100 of the trees, one of which had fallen due to natural causes. That allowed them to collect wood samples for testing.
