Strychnos potatorum

Strychnos potatorum L.f.

Common names

Black bitter berry, grape Strychnos (English); mubangachulu (Bemba); kanungu-nungu, mfumba-fumba, msimbiti Nyanja).

General description and distinguishing characteristics

Strychnos potatorum is a small to medium sized tree up to 18 m tall but usually much smaller. Bark creamy-brown, light brown or grey with a smooth texture that may become dimpled or papery. Young branchlets creamy grey, sometimes finely hairy, unarmed. Leaves simple, opposite with distinctive leaf venation of 3-5 nerves arising from the base of the leaf. Leaf 6-15 x 3-9 cm, elliptic to ovate, glossy green above, paler below, thinly textured, glabrous, margin entire. Petiole 1-7 mm long. Flowers fragrant, white, cream or yellow, 5 mm long, produced in 2-5 flowered heads at the base of the branchlets (October-December). Fruit spherical, 2-2.5 cm in diameter, thin-shelled, ripening glossy black. Fruit contains a dark green to purplish pulp enclosing a single pale seed (June-September).

Range and habitat

Strychnos potatorum occurs throughout the Flora Zambesiaca region. Its range also extends in to south Asia. In the Luangwa Valley it is primarily associated with the sandy soils of the major rivers and alluvial thicket.