Erythrococca atrovirens

(Pax) Prain

EuphorbiaceaeFruitLeaves

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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit, Pod, Leaves, Vegetable

The leaves are cooked and eaten as a leafy vegetable, adding flavor to dishes.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It occurs in equatorial Africa. It grows in dry evergreen woodland.

Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, CAR, Congo DR, East Africa, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, 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 shrub. It grows 2.5 m high. The wood is soft. Young growth has yellowish hair. The leaf blades are 5-10 cm long by 3-5 cm wide. There are hairs especially underneath. There are 4-6 pairs of side veins. Male flower shoots are 5 cm long. Female flower shoots are 2-3 cm long. The fruit are 4-6 mm long by 5-10 mm wide. The seeds are 3-4 mm across.

How to Grow

A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.

Medicinal Uses

The leaf sap or a paste from the roots, heated together with lemon juice, is applied to syphilitic sores. The leaf powder is applied to wounds.

Production

In Central African Republic plants flower in December and fruit in March.

Names & Synonyms

Esirietso, Likile, Mascha, Mbeteke, Mbileteke, Meteke, Ponyonyo

Athroandra atrovirens (Pax) Pax & K. Hoffm.Claoxylon atrovirens Pax

References (10)

Abukutsa-Onyango, Mary, 2007, The diversity of cultivated African leafy vegetables in three communities in western Kenya. AJFAND, Volume 7, No. 3
East African Herbarium records, 1981,
Flora Zambesiaca. http://apps.kew.org/efloras
Grubben, G. J. H. and Denton, O. A. (eds), 2004, Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. p 299
Newman, 1970,
Oyen, L.P.A., 2008. Erythrococca bongensis Pax. [Internet] Record from Protabase. Schmelzer, G.H. & Gurib-Fakim, A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa), Wageningen, Netherlands. < http://database.prota.org/search.htm>. Accessed 16 October 2009.
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 110
Seidemann J., 2005, World Spice Plants. Economic Usage, Botany, Taxonomy. Springer. p 148
Termote, C., et al, 2011, Eating from the wild: Turumbu, Mbole and Bali traditional knowledge of non-cultivated edible plants, District Tshopo, DRCongo, Gen Resourc Crop Evol. 58:585-618 (var. flaccida)
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew