Mongongo is a large, spreading tree of southern African dry woodland and Kalahari sands, grown for its edible nut. It is a single species in its own genus, Schinziophyton, and is rarely grown as an ornamental outside its native range.
Family
Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; it tolerates long dry seasons.
Soil
Well-drained sandy or sandy loam soil.
Temperature
Seasonally dry tropical conditions; frost-sensitive, protect below 5 °C.
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Tanzania to Namibia
Climate
seasonally dry tropical
About
The mongongo tree, mongongo nut or manketti tree (Schinziophyton rautanenii) is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae and the monotypic genus Schinziophyton.
Native to Africa, the fruits produce an edible nut.
Where it grows
The mongongo is distributed widely through subtropical southern Africa. There are several distinct belts of distribution, the largest of which reaches from northern Namibia into northern Botswana, south-western Zambia and western Zimbabwe. Another belt is found in eastern Malawi, and yet another in eastern Mozambique.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mongongo 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.