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Tetrapleura tetraptera
In Singapore: Arida (Grown in Singapore)
Aridan (Tetrapleura tetraptera) is a medium-sized deciduous tree from tropical Africa, grown mainly for its aromatic pods, which are used as a spice in West African soups. It is a tree rather than a houseplant, so care focuses on warm, humid tropical conditions and space to grow.
Tetrapleura tetraptera, also known as prekese, aidan fruit, or four corner spice, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae native to Western Africa and Central Africa. The plant is called prekese (or, more correctly, prɛkɛsɛ aka soup perfume) in the Akan language of Ghana. It is also called uhio (uhiokrihio) in the Igbo language of Nigeria.
The tree has many uses. Its sweet fragrance is valued, and its fruit is used to spice dishes, such as Banga soup. It is mostly used to prepare palm nut soup and other types of soups called light soup because of its aroma.
Native to Tropical Africa, from Senegal in West Africa to Sudan and Kenya and southwards to Tanzania and Angola.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tetrapleura tetraptera 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.
