Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Azanza

Thespesia garckeana

Azanza
Photo: SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0

Azanza (Thespesia garckeana) is a drought-tolerant tree from southern and eastern Africa, often found in wooded grassland and on termite mounds. It is grown for its edible fruit and fodder leaves and needs a warm, sunny, well-drained site.

Family
Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry out between waterings once established.
Soil
Well-drained sandy or loamy soil; tolerates poor soil.
Temperature
18–35 °C; protect below 5 °C
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Nigeria to Kenya and Limpopo
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Thespesia garckeana (also known by its synonym Azanza garckeana) is a tree in the family Malvaceae, found throughout the warmer parts of Southern Africa in wooded grasslands, open woodland and thickets. It grows naturally over a range of altitudes from 1,000 to 2,000 m above sea level, from semi-arid areas to areas of higher rainfall. T. garckeana is often found on or near termite mounds in old fields.

Common names: African chewing gum, goron tula, snot apple, tree hibiscus, mutohwe (Shona), nkole (Sri Lanka), uXakuxaku (isiNdebele) and morojwa (Setswana).

Uses

The whole fruit except the seeds is chewed like gum, producing a sweet glutinous slime. The fruit is also used as a syrup and soup.

Other Thespesia plants

Portia tree

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thespesia garckeana 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…