Vitex harveyana
H. H. W. Pearson
Scrambling fingerleaf, Three finger-leaf
(c) Kate Braun, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Kate Braun
(c) Stacey Gerber, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Stacey Gerber, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The ripe fruit are eaten raw.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant.
Africa, East Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland,
How to Identify
A shrub or small tree. It grows 3-7 m tall. It is slightly hairy. The branches have lines along them or are angled. The leaves are opposite and compound. The leaf stalk is slender and 3 cm long. The leaves have 3 or 5 leaflets. The blades are oval and slightly wavy along the edge. The leaves are 8 cm long by 4 cm wide. The flowering stalks are in the axils of leaves. The flowers are in a loose clusters. They are mauve or white. The fruit is round and black. It is 1.2 cm across.
Notes
Also put in the family Verbenaceae.
Names & Synonyms
Mbidvongo, Umbendula, Umkhosikati, Whorled finger-leaf
References (9)
- Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 363
- Long, C., 2005, Swaziland's Flora - siSwati names and Uses http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora/
- Palmer & Pitman, 1972,
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 199
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 72
- Schmidt, E., Lotter, M., & McCleland, W., 2007, Trees and shrubs of Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park. Jacana Media p 580
- Swaziland's Flora Database http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora
- Van Wyck, B., & Van Wyck, P, 1997, Field Guide to Trees of Southern Africa. Struik. p 476
- 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
