DESCRIPTION: It is a deciduous shrub or less often a tree 3-8 m in height with a short trunk and hanging branchlets. Bark pale grey-brown, peeling in untidy flakes. Branches usually opposite with reddish tomentose young branchlets. Leaves dull green, opposite, rusty tomentose, 5-24 x 3.8-15 cm, shape varying from ovate or obovate to lanceolate or rounded. Fruit subglobose, glossy, 3-6.5 x 3.5-6 cm, greenish when unripe, turning brownish after ripening and with a soft fleshy pulp. USE: The fruit are eaten raw and the pulp sometimes soaked in water and then dried to use later. The leaves are browsed by goats and wild life. The wood is used as fuel. The roots are used for a variety of illnesses such as malaria, pneumonia, coughs and other chest troubles, as a purgative and an anthelmintic (especially for Ascaris), and is also a popular snakebite remedy. The leaves are applied to tick-bite sores on livestock and dogs to speed up healing. They are also is used to treat swellings on the legs, inflammation of the navel in children, abdominal pain and for the relief of dental pain. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: Wild medlar. FURTHER INF: It can be found in bushland, especially along streams, dry forests, fringing forest, woodland, grassland with scattered trees, especially on rocky ridges and hillsides, also near the sea on sand dunes. Does well in open as well as partially shaded areas, especially under acacias. Prefers well-drained soils, especially sandy, rocky and light clay, but can occasionally be found in places that are briefly waterlogged during the rainy season. Prefers red or yellow-red, gritty sandy clay loams (latosolic soils) and brown clay loams. It can withstand long periods of drought and frost. |