| DESCRIPTION: It is a semi-evergreen spiny shrub, scrambler or small tree up to 12 m tall. It has a spreading, drooping branches forming a heavy, rounded and untidy crown. Leaves ovate to broadly ovate, up to 8 x 4.7 cm. Fruit almost spherical, 2-3 cm in diameter, shiny red or reddish-brown when mature and smooth. USE: The sweet fruits are edible, and the leaves may be cooked as a vegetable and also used as fodder. The flowers are a source of honey. Wood is used as firewood and charcoal, it is also used for furniture, interior work and carving. The bark yields a cinnamon-coloured dye. Ash from the burnt leaves is mixed with salt and applied on the throat to relieve tonsillitis. A fomentation of steaming hot leaves soaked in boiling water are used as on the chest to treat pneumonia. The spiny branches make this plant useful as a protective live fence. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: Jujube. FURTHER INF: It is found growing in arid or dry tropical and subtropical regions, with severe heat and slight frost. It occurs at medium to low altitudes, in open woodland, open grassland and along riverbanks; it reaches its southernmost limit along the southern escarpment of the Zambezi Valley. The tree grows throughout Zambia except for 5 districts in the northwest corner and is widespread outside Zambia from Senegal and Ethiopia south to Angola and Mozambique. It is locally frequent in the chipya, Kalahari and munga woodlands and in munga scrub and occurs occasionally in other woodland types and on termite mounds. It grows throughout East Africa; in Uganda, it occurs in dry savannah in eastern and northern regions. |