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Strychnos icaja is a very large tropical rainforest liana from West and Central Africa, able to climb to 30-40 m and sprawl up to 100 m long. It is a wild forest species rather than a garden plant, and it is not realistically grown as a houseplant or crop.
Strychnos icaja is a species belonging to the plant family Loganiaceae, native to West Tropical Africa. It is a very large, tropical rainforest liana which may attain a length of 100 m (330 ft).
The earliest reliable account of the use of the plant as both poison and entheogen is to be found in a short paper by Aubry-Lecomte of 1864, predating the publication of its scientific name by 15 years. The relevant passage runs as follows:
Monsieur Duchaillu has already spoken ( in a work well-received by those who have travelled in the interior of Gabon - despite its measure of exaggeration) of the effects of the poison M'boundou; the notes and specimens lately brought back from that country by Monsieur Griffon du Bellay, naval surgeon first class, confirm, on the whole, the description given by this traveller [Duchaillu]. The plant M'boundou belongs to the genus Strychnos of the family Loganiaceae, and the infusion of the reddish bark of its root is held by the natives of Cape Lopez to confer (upon him who does not die after having drunk it) the power of divination. Taken in small doses, it is said to be intoxicating and diuretic; but at a dose of half a bowl of grated root infused for half an hour in a bowl of water, it almost always proves lethal.
St. Ignatius bean · Strychnine tree · Strychnine Tree · Green Monkey Orange · Natal orange · Strychnine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Strychnos icaja 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.
