Strychnos spinosa
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| Strychnos spinosa |
Strychnos spinosa is a tree indigenous to tropical and subtropical Africa. It produces juicy, sweet-sour, yellow fruits, often known as kaffir oranges, containing numerous hard brown seeds. Greenish-white flowers grow in dense heads at the ends of branches (Sep-Feb/Spring - summer). The fruit tend to appear only after good rains. The smooth, hard fruit are large and green, ripen to yellow color. Inside the fruit are tightly packed seeds surrounded by a fleshy, edible covering. Animals such as baboon, monkeys, bushpig, nyala and eland eat the fruit. The leaves are a popular food source for browsers such as duiker, kudu, impala, steenbok, nyala and elephant. It is believed that various insects pollinate the flowers.
Common names : Spiny Monkey-orange/Green Monkey Orange (English) Doringklapper (Afrikaans) Morapa (NS) umKwakwa (Swaziland) Nsala (Tswana) Mutamba (Shona)
[edit] Distribution
This tree can be found growing singly in well-drained soils. It is found in bushveld, riverine fringes, sand forest and coastal bush from the Eastern Cape , to Kwazulu-Natal , Mozambique and inland to Swaziland , Zimbabwe , northern Botswana and northern Namibia , north to tropical Africa.
[edit] Uses
- The wood can be used for general carpentry. Timber from this tree is also used to produce implement handles, fighting sticks and hut poles. It is also used for carving.
- The species has recently been introduced into Israel as a potential new commercial crop.
- The fruit may be used as a supplementary source of food by rural people during times of shortage.
 Ripe fruit of the Strychnos spinosa tree. |
 Rotten fruit of the Strychnos spinosa tree. |
