Vitex pooara
Corbishley
Stinkbessie
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc-nd
(c) Joseph Heymans, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Joseph Heymans
(c) Joseph Heymans, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Joseph Heymans
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Phil McLean, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Phil McLean, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
Fruit - raw or cooked. The fruits are 2cm long, very dark purple or black when ripe, and the calyx may enclose half the fruit. One drawback is that the juice may stain the mouth; after eating these chocolate berries everyone has black lips.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant.
Africa, Botswana, South Africa*, Southern Africa,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A small to medium sized tree. It grows 5 m tall. The branches are spreading. The bark is grey-brown and peels in strips. The leaves are compound. They have 3-5 leaflets arranged like fingers on a hand.
Nutrition Score: 34/100
| Part | Moisture | kJ | kcal | Protein | Vit A | Vit C | Iron | Zinc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fruit | 72 | 406 | 97 | 1.1 | — | 2 | 1.9 | 0.4 |
Notes
Also put in the family Verbenaceae.
Names & Synonyms
Hardekool, Mburo, Mphuru, Poera-bessie, Poora-berry, Resin-leaf, Wild cherry
References (13)
- Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1920:333. 1920
- Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 364
- Grivetti, L. E., 1980, Agricultural development: present and potential role of edible wild plants. Part 2: Sub-Saharan Africa, Report to the Department of State Agency for International Development. p 75
- INFOODS:FAO/INFOODS Databases
- Jardin, C., 1970, List of Foods Used In Africa, FAO Nutrition Information Document Series No 2.p 168
- Nyiligera, E., 2004, A Phytochemical and Pharmacological Investigation of South African Vitex Species. M. Sc thesis University of Witwatersrand.
- Palmer, E and Pitman, N., 1972, Trees of Southern Africa. Vol. 2. A.A. Balkema, Cape Town p 1953
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 199
- Quin, 1959,
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 72
- Van Wyk, Br. and van Wyk P., 2009, Field Guide to Trees of Southern Africa. Struik Nature. p 478
- Wehmeyer, A. S, 1986, Edible Wild Plants of Southern Africa. Data on the Nutrient Contents of over 300 species
- Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179
