Pyrostria bibracteata

(Baker) Cavaco

Zimbabwe porcupine bush

RubiaceaeFruit

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

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(c) Andy Goerdel - Texas Master Naturalist, Good Water Chapter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

Fruit - raw. The fleshy fruit has a sweet flavour and is eaten as a snack. The globose, yellow-red to black berries are up to 8mm in diameter, containing a single seed.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It grows on woodland and usually where there is a high water-table. It grows from sea level to 700 m above sea level.

Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zimbabwe,

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

An evergreen shrub or small tree. It grows 2-10 m tall. The bark is smooth and pale grey. The leaves are simple and opposite. They are broadly oval and 13.5 cm long. They are stiff and somewhat leathery. The flowers are in groups of 30. They are yellow or cream and small. The fruit are yellow and 5-8 mm across. The fruit are edible.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown by seeds.

Other Uses

The wood is hard. It is used for building poles, withies, pegs and tool handles. The wood is used for fuel.

Production

In Tanzania fruit are collected from April to June.

Names & Synonyms

Mbunisigo, Mfupapo, Mfupapu, Mkonge, Mpwizopwizo, Mshizo, Mufudzo, Mumahe

Canthium bibracteatum (Bak.) Hiern.Plectronia bibracteata Baker

References (7)

East African Herbarium records, 1981,
Kenya Trees, Shrubs, Lianas, 1994, nzdl.org
Lovett, J. C. et al, Field Guide to the Moist Forest Trees of Tanzania. p 140
Msuya, T. S., et al, 2010, Availability, Preference and Consumption of Indigenous Foods in the Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 49:3, 208-227
Mutie, F. M., et al, 2023, Important Medicinal and Food Taxa (Orders and Families) in Kenya, Based on Three Quantitative Approaches. Plants 2023, 12, 1145
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 174
Ruffo, C. K., Birnie, A. & Tengnas, B., 2002, Edible Wild Plants of Tanzania. RELMA p 554