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Myrianthus arboreus
Myrianthus arboreus is a dioecious tropical tree or large shrub from lowland forests of tropical Africa, grown locally for its edible seeds and leaves. Male and female flowers are on separate trees, so both sexes are needed for fruit.
Myrianthus arboreus, commonly known as the giant yellow mulberry or monkey fruit, is a dioecious tropical tree in the genus Myrianthus. It lives in the tropical Central African countries of Central African Republic, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Tanzania, and also Ghana in the West African countries. Its chromosome count is 2n = 28.
It is locally known as nyankama among the Asante people of Ghana, and ekanhou in Eastern Gabon.
Chemical compounds isolated from extracts of the species includes a few ursane type triterpenoids, tormentic, myrianthic and euscaphic acids and flavanols: epicatechin and dulcisflavan.
The species occurs in Tropical Africa, from Guinea eastwards to the Sudan and southwards to Tanzania. Commonly found in lowland forest environments.
The seeds of M. arboreus are eaten cooked; the leaves are made into a vegetable soup called ofe ujuju, or used as livestock feed.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Myrianthus arboreus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
