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Strychnos spinosa
Also called Monkey Orange, Spiny Monkey Orange, Kaffir Orange, Elephant Orange, Green Monkey Orange, Monkeyball, Sweet Monkey Orange
Strychnos spinosa is a small tree or shrub native to tropical and southern Africa, grown for its large, sweet-sour yellow fruit. It is a drought-tolerant tree of dry bushveld that needs well-drained soil, and it rarely suits pots or home gardens unless given space and a dry, sunny spot.
Strychnos spinosa, the Natal orange, also called mokotra in Madagascar, is a tree indigenous to tropical and subtropical Africa. It produces sweet-sour yellow fruits, containing numerous hard brown seeds. Greenish-white flowers grow in dense heads at the ends of branches (Sep-Feb/Spring - summer). The fruits tend to appear only after good rains. It is related to the deadly Strychnos nux-vomica, which contains strychnine. The fruit are large, smooth, and firm, transitioning from green to yellow as they ripen. Inside the fruit are tightly packed seeds, which may be toxic, surrounded by a fleshy, brown, edible covering.
Animals such as baboon, monkeys, bushpig, nyala and eland eat the fruit. The leaves are a popular food source for browsers such as duiker, kudu, impala, steenbok, nyala and elephant.
An iridoid, sarracenin, has been isolated from the root bark of Strychnos spinosa.
This tree can be found growing singly in well-drained soils. It is found in bushveld, riverine fringes, sand forest and coastal bush from the Eastern Cape to Kwazulu-Natal, northwards to Mozambique, and inland to Eswatini, Zimbabwe, parts of Zambia specifically the western part of Zambia since it is sandy and some parts of southern province of Zambia, northern Botswana, northern Namibia, Angola, Guinea Bissau, to tropical Africa, north west Madagascar, south east Madagascar at Sainte Luce Reserve, Southern Kenya on the lower parts of Eastern arc mountains, north west Ethiopia, and western Tigray at Kafta Sheraro National Park. It is able to grow in semi-arid and arid lands.
Strychnos icaja · St. Ignatius bean · Strychnine tree · Strychnine Tree · Green Monkey Orange · Strychnine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Strychnos spinosa 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.
