Maerua angolensis

Maerua angolensis DC.

Common names

Bead bean (English); mkalachulu, mswachulu, mpotolo, nyaumpe (Nyanja)

General description and distinguishing characteristics

Maerua angolensis is a shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall but usually much smaller in the valley. It is most easily recognised when it is in fruit, its pods looking like strings of beads. Bark light grey to dark brown; young branchlets conspicuously lenticelled. Leaves simple, spirally arranged on the branches. Leaves 2.5-7 x 1.3-5.5 cm, lanceolate, broadly elliptic or ovate to broadly ovate. Petioles up to 3 cm long, often slightly swollen below the leaf. Flowers consist of green sepals up to 2 cm long, with a mass of ca. 50 stamens on white filaments up to 4 cm long. Produced singly in the axils of the upper leaves or in short, terminal spikes (June-November). Fruit cylindrical pods, 2-16 x 1 cm, constricted between the seeds, green drying to brown (September onwards).

Range and habitat

Maerua angolensis is widely distributed throughout tropical Africa and the northern parts of South Africa. In the valley it is found in mopane woodland on sand and in thicket.