Dombeya rotundifolia Seeds - Wild Pear - Indigenous Flowering Tree Seeds - New

Dombeya is a flowering plant genus of around 250 species. Traditionally included in the family Sterculiaceae, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae in the APG and most subsequent systematics. These plants are known by a number of vernacular names which sometimes, misleadingly, allude to the superficial similarity of flowering Dombeya to pears or hydrangeas, which are unrelated. They grow chiefly throughout Africa and Madagascar. The generic name Dombeya is in honour of Joseph Dombey, a French botanist and traveller in Peru and Chile (1742-1793).

Dombeya rotundifolia commonly known as the Wild Pear is a lovely tree that gets its English common name from the masses of white blooms whibefore the leaves in early spring. This South African indigenous species bears a resemblance to a true pear, Pyrus communis, in full flower. It is no relation of the pear tree, which is in the Rose family, Roseaceae, like the peach and apricot.

Like other Dombeya species the flowers remain on the tree until after the fruit capsules have formed in the centre of each flower. The petals turn brown and become dry and light. Once the fruit is ripe and falls from the tree, the petals act as wings and float it away. The wild pear grows in woodland, wooded grassland and rocky mountain slopes from Kwazulu-Natal northwards to Ethiopia.