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Strychnos madagascariensis
Also called Hairy-leaved monkey-orange
Black monkey orange is a multi-stemmed African tree, usually about 6 m tall, grown for its large round fruit with edible orange pulp. It is a tree rather than a houseplant, so grow it in open, sunny, well-drained ground in warm climates.
Strychnos madagascariensis, the black monkey orange, is an African tropical and sub-tropical tree belonging to the Loganiaceae family. It is a tree with characteristically large fruit but can confused with some other species of the genus.
It is native to KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Transvaal, and further north to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Tropical Africa and the western side of Madagascar.
The tree is a close relative of Strychnos nux-vomica, the seed of which is a source of strychnine. Fishing with poisonous plants used to be a common practice in Africa, and though outlawed is still employed in remote areas. As with other species of Strychnos the seeds are pulverised and thrown into a pool or dammed sections of a stream, affected fish soon rising to the surface, while subsequent cooking breaks down the poison. Oils extracted from the inner skin of the fruit have a high oleic acid content.
Strychnos benthamii · Strychnos camptoneura · Strychnos chromatoxylon · Corky Bark Monkey Orange · Strychnos elaeocarpa · Strychnos icaja · St. Ignatius bean · Strychnos mellodora · Strychnos millepunctata · Snakewood · Strychnos nux-blanda · Strychnine tree
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Strychnos madagascariensis 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.
