Combretum aculeatum
Vent.
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Seeds, Caution, Fruit
The cooked leaves and seeds are eaten, and the fruit is edible. The plant is used as a famine food.
Known Hazards
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows in dry savannah. It grows in the Sahel. It can tolerate flooding. It is often on sandy and stony soils. It grows between 10-1,700 m above sea level. It grows in areas with an annual rainfall above 200 mm. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, East Africa, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinée, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Mediterranean, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, North Africa, Sahel, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, West Africa,
How to Identify
A scrambling shrub. It can grow to 4 m high. The young leaves and flowers have reddish hairs. The leaves fall off. They are small and alternate. They are 1-5 cm long and 8 mm wide and opposite leaves can be of unequal size. The flowers are along small stems. The flowers are 1.3 cm long. They have red anthers.
How to Grow
Plants can be grown from seeds. It can be grown from cuttings and root suckers. It can be cut back and will re-grown.
Propagation: Seed - germinates well at a temperature of 25°c. The seed of most, if not all, species can be stored inside the fruit for several years without losing viability.
Medicinal Uses
The leaves are used in traditional medicine.
Other Uses
The climbing branches are supple; they are used to make panniers and wicker-baskets for holding milk-vessels. The plant is highly utilised for firewood and to make charcoal.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Combretum aculeatum is a species of flowering plant in the bushwillow genus Combretum, family Combretaceae. It is native to the Sahelian and Sudanian savannas and adjacent forest–savanna mosaic in Africa and Saudi Arabia, and has been introduced to Myanmar. High in protein, it is greatly relished as a browse by wild and domesticated mammalian herbivores, except elephants.
Other Information
It is a famine food.
Notes
There are about 255 Combretum species. It is used in medicine.
Names & Synonyms
Aitra, Bubukia, Bulapal, Dablab, Gulugu, Ikik, Kalawuri, Kignfirda, Konti, Lahon niandi, Laugni, mu-Cigi, Muthigora, Qignfirta, Sajaata-saare, Sheibeit
References (16)
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