Cordyla africana

Cordyla africana Lour.

Common names

Wild mango (English); mutondo (Bisa, Kunda, Tumbuka); matondo, msika, mtondo, ntondo (Nyanja).

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A large, deciduous tree, up to 25 m tall, with a wide spreading crown. Bark greyish brown with vertical fissures. Leaves compound, imparipinnate with 11-28 pairs of leaflets plus the terminal leaflet. Leaflets 2-5 x 1-2.5 cm, oblong with a rounded, notched apex and characteristic pellucid dots. Flowers produced in dense axillary racemes of 2-6 cm. Individual flowers comprise a mass of orange-yellow stamens up to 2.5 cm long; petals are absent (August-September). Fruit ovoid (4 x 5 cm), drupaceous, golden yellow and glossy with a soft thin exocarp and one or two large lobed seeds embedded in an edible jelly-like pulp (January-February).

Range and habitat

Cordyla africana only occurs in the Zambezi valley and its tributaries, extending north into Zambia and south into Mozambique. In the Luangwa valley it is associated with the levees and sand deposits of the major rivers.