Vitex mombassae

Vitex mombassae Vatke

Common names

Smelly berry fingerleaf (English); kafutubututa, kalume-kamuchinka, muninka (Bemba); mfutu (Bemba/Nyanja); fika (Nyanja); mkika, mufifya-wangoono (Tumbuka).

The English common name of this species refers to the unpleasant smell and taste of the fruit.

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A shrub of usually 2-3 m or smaller, Vitex mombassae is most easily recognised by its rough, leathery 3-5 fingered leaves. Bark grey-brown, quite rough, young branches covered in long yellowish hairs. Leaves 3-5-foliate, the terminal three leaflets largest, and the lateral leaflets smaller, all sessile or sub-sessile. Leaflets obovate, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, up to 7.5 x 4 cm, covered with fine, short hairs on the upper surface, and densely woolly beneath. Margin entire. Petiole up to 9 cm long, covered with tawny hairs. Flowers mauve and creamy white, and produced in few flowered cymes up to 4 cm long. Corolla 5-13 mm long, calyx lobes and stalks covered with yellow hairs (produced September-October). Fruit an ovoid purple-black drupe, up to 2 cm in diameter, in a saucer-shaped calyx (March-June).

Range and habitat

Vitex mombassae occurs throughout the Zambezian region and north to DR Congo, Tanzania and Kenya, as its specific name suggests. In the Luangwa valley, it is found in riverine woodland, miombo woodland, hill miombo woodland, Combretum-Terminalia-Burkea woodland and Combretum-Terminalia-Diospyros wooded grassland.