Whitfieldia elongata

(P. De Beauv.) De Wild. & T. Durand

AcanthaceaeFruitSeeds/NutsFlowers

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(c) Bart Wursten, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Bart Wursten

iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) andreaudzungwa, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit, Nuts, Nectar

The fruit and nuts are edible, and the flower nectar is sucked fresh by children.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. In Ethiopia it grows between 600-1,600 m above sea level.

Africa, Angola, Central Africa, Central African Republic, CAR, East Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia,

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 herb or shrub. It tends to lie over. It can grow 5 m tall. The leaves are dark green above and more pale underneath. The flowers are white.

How to Grow

Prefers light to moderately heavy shade.

Medicinal Uses

The leaves are pulped up after being passed through a fire and then used as an embrocation in the treatment of bronchitis. This same preparation is also eaten as a vegetable by women as an aid to conception. A leaf-decoction in palm wine is drunk in the treatment of stomach-complaints and as a remedy to food-poisoning.

Other Uses

The leaves yield a black dye. The stems are used to make spinning spindles.

Production

Plants flower in January and February.

Other Information

The flower nectar is sucked by children.

Names & Synonyms

Adibuch

Dipteracanthus elongatus NeesRuellia elongata P. Beauv.Whitfieldia longiflora S. MooreWhitfieldia longifolia T. AndersonWhitfieldia perglabra C. B. ClarkeWhitfieldia subviridis C. B. ClarkeWhitfieldia tanganyikensis C. B. Clarke

References (6)

Awas, T., 1997, A Study on the Ecology and Ethnobotany of Non-cultivated Food Plants and Wild Relatives of Cultivated crops in Gambella Region, Southwestern Ethiopia. Addis Ababa University. p 36
Fowler, D. G., 2007, Zambian Plants: Their Vernacular Names and Uses. Kew. p 75
Harris, D. J., 2002, The vascular plants of the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve, Central African Republic. National Botanic Garden of Belgium, 2002. – 274 pages p 38
Herb., E. A., 1981,
Lulekal, E., et al, 2011, Wild edible plants in Ethiopia: a review on their potential to combat food insecurity. Afrika Focus - Vol. 24, No 2. pp 71-121
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 45