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Strychnos usambarensis
Also called Stipe Fruited Bitterbush, Stipe Fruited Strychnos
Strychnos usambarensis is a shrub, small tree or climbing liane from Sub-Saharan Africa, valued more as a wild species than a garden plant. Treat it as a toxic plant; its root bark and leaves are used to make arrow poison.
Strychnos usambarensis is a shrub or small tree up to 15m tall or a 70m long liane of Sub-Saharan Africa, occurring in forest and woodland, mountain ravines and coastal bush, often on rocky slopes and named for the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. The species is found from Guinea east to Nigeria, from Congo east to Kenya and south to kloofs of the Magaliesberg of South Africa. Bantu tribes from Rwanda and Tanzania produce an arrow poison from the root bark and leaves of this species, sometimes combining it with extracts from other plants. (see Toxalbumin)
The leaves are opposite, held in a horizontal plane, ovate to elliptic in shape with a characteristic drip tip, and glossy dark green above. Flowers are small, in axillary clusters, whitish to yellowish-green, and fragrant. Fruits are soft-shelled and small, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, yellow when ripe, tapering to a collar at peduncle.
Strychnos benthamii · Strychnos camptoneura · Strychnos chromatoxylon · Corky Bark Monkey Orange · Strychnos elaeocarpa · Strychnos icaja · St. Ignatius bean · Black monkey orange · Strychnos mellodora · Strychnos millepunctata · Snakewood · Strychnos nux-blanda
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Strychnos usambarensis 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.
