Rutidea orientalis

Bridson

Fringe tail

RubiaceaeFruit

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

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(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Marco Schmidt

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit is used for beer.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It grow in the rain-forest from lowlands to the mountains. It grows in evergreen rain-forest between 350-1,600 m above sea level. It grows in deep shade along rivers.

Africa, Burundi, Central Africa, Congo, East Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Southern Africa, Uganda, 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

A climber in the tree canopy. It can be 6 m tall. The leaves are opposite and broadly sword shaped. They are shiny and dark green above and paler with yellow hairs underneath. The flowers are in dense clusters. They are small and white. They have a strong scent. The fruit are 5-9 mm across. They are yellow or orange. They turn purple-black when ripe.

Names & Synonyms

Rutidea syringoides auctt. non (Webb.) Bremek.

References (3)

Glover, 1967,
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 175
White, F., Dowsett-Lemaire, F. and Chapman, J. D., 2001, Evergreen Forest Flora of Malawi. Kew. p 494

What to Eat

Where to Find It

How to Identify

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