| DESCRIPTION: It is an evergreen, spreading tree up to 20 m tall with a single bare stem and a dense, roundish to mushroom-shaped crown. Leaves alternate, simple, elliptic to oblong, 3-8 x 2-4 cm, leathery, dark green. Fruit oval to round, up to 5 x 3.5 cm, russet-yellow to greyish, scaly and pitted, becoming orange-yellow when ripe. USE: the fruit is adible and has a high content of protein and vitamin C. Seeds are pounded and used for making soup, they can also be eaten and make a passable substitute for almonds. Fruits and leaves are used as feed and the flowers are a source of honey. Wood is used as timber and fuel. The bark contains tannin and the seeds have a high content of lipids. A hot fomentation of the bark is used in the treatment of pneumonia. A leaf decoction is either drunk or used in a bath as a fever remedy. Crushed or pulped leaves are used in a dressing for fractures or dislocations, and for wounds, sores and cuts. The tree is planted for shade and as an ornamental. The oil cake can be used as manure. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: Fever tree, hissing tree, mobola plum. FURTHER INF: It grows naturally in open, deciduous woodland, wooded grassland and upland grassland, often persisting in cultivated land and present in secondary bushland. It is particularly common near rivers and in areas of poor drainage. It is sensitive to frost and cold wind. It can tolerate small concentrations of copper in the soil. Often found on light yellowish-brown to reddish-yellow, gritty, sandy clay loams and red to dark red friable clays with lateritic horizon. |
