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Strophanthus speciosus
Also called Forest Tailflower, Monkey Ropes, Poisonrope, Common Poisonrope
A woody climber, shrub or small tree from southern African forests, grown mainly as a curiosity or in botanical collections. Its key feature is a poisonous sap containing cardiac glycosides.
Strophanthus speciosus, commonly known as the forest poison rope, is a tree, shrub or woody climber which is native to southern Africa.
Strophanthus speciosus is native to Zimbabwe, South Africa and Eswatini. It occurs in forests and their margins from 300–1,400 metres (1,000–5,000 ft) altitude.
Local medicinal uses of S. speciosus include snakebite treatment. The plant has also been used as arrow poison. As with other species of Strophanthus it contains the cardiac glycoside strophanthin - plants of allied genera contain similar compounds.
Elephant Vine · Wood Shaving Flower · Tailless Tail Flower · Goat Horns · Emin's strophanthus · Ouabain · Kombe arrow poison · Preuss' strophanthus · Strophanthus · Strophanthus welwitschii · Strophanthus
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Strophanthus speciosus 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.
