Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Marula

Sclerocarya birrea

Also called Morula

Marula
Photo: Rotational, Public domain

Marula is a medium-sized deciduous fruit tree from the savanna and miombo woodlands of Africa and Madagascar, grown for its tart, edible fruit. It needs full sun and a warm, seasonally dry climate to thrive.

Family
Anacardiaceae (Cashew family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply during establishment, then rely mostly on seasonal rain; avoid waterlogged soil.
Soil
Well-drained sandy or loamy soil.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect young trees below 5 °C, as the tree is frost-sensitive.
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
W. Trop. Africa to Ethiopia and Tanzania
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Sclerocarya birrea commonly known as marula, is a medium-sized deciduous fruit-bearing tree, indigenous to the miombo woodlands of Southern Africa, the Sudano-Sahelian range of West Africa, the savanna woodlands of East Africa and Madagascar.

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sclerocarya birrea 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…