Kirkia wilmsii

Engl.

Mountain syringa

KirkiaceaeRoots

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(c) Charles Hopkins, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Charles Hopkins

iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Troos van der Merwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Troos van der Merwe

What to Eat

Edible parts: Roots - water, Tuber

The swollen roots are chewed to quench thirst and can be eaten for their water content.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It is frost and drought resistant once established. It can grow in arid places.

Africa, 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

It is a deciduous tree. It grows 8-18 m tall. The crown is round or spreading. The leaves are crowded at the tips. They are 10-20 cm long. They are compound with 20-40 leaflets. These are shiny and grey-green. The flowers are greenish-white and in compound heads. The fruit are small and light brown. They are 4 valved capsules.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown from seeds. The seeds are small and sown with fine sand. They can also be grown from cuttings or large branch sections.

Propagation: Seed - easy. Cuttings root easily.

Other Uses

A rather strong fibre is obtained from the bark. It can be used for weaving.

Production

The large swollen tubers can be 30 cm long.

Notes

It is also put in the family Simaroubaceae.

References (12)

Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 342
Heywood, V.H., Brummitt, R.K., Culham, A., and Seberg, O. 2007, Flowering Plant Families of the World. Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. p 177
Notizbl. Koenigl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 2:25. 1897
Palmer & Pitman, 1972,
Peters & Maguire, 1981,
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 186
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Published on the Internet; http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ceb/sepasal/internet [Accessed 11th June 2011]
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 69
Schmidt, E., Lotter, M., & McCleland, W., 2007, Trees and shrubs of Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park. Jacana Media p 242
Venter, F & J., 2009, Making the most of Indigenous Trees. Briza. p 204
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
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew