Xylopia elliotii

Engler & Diels

AnnonaceaeFruitSpice/Beverage

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(c) Oliver Haumann, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Oliver Haumann

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit - flavouring, Spice

The fruit is used as a flavouring and spice.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It grows between 280-1,400 m above sea level.

Africa, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Guinée, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Togo, West Africa,

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 or small tree. It grows 10 m tall. It has many branches. The bark is dark brown. The twigs are hairy. The leaves are oval and 5-10 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. The flowers are in the axils of leaves. The petals are white tinged with purple at the base. The flowers have a scent. The fruit have up to 8 long sections. These are red to purple. There are up to 9 seeds in each section.