Edible parts: Fruit, Roots, Leaves, Bark, Seed
A deciduous tree. It grows up to 21 m tall. It has a wide leafy crown. The trunk is grey-brown. It is smooth when young butrough when older. The twigs are knobbly and covered with small scattered raised brown dots. The leaves are simple and slightly wavy. They are oval and have a point at the end. The base is narrowed or rounded. The leaves are 4-18 cm long and 2.5-10 cm wide. There are 8-15 pairs of veins. The veins and midrib are raised under the leaf. The leaves are on short robust leaf stalks. Young leaves are red. The male and female flowers occur on the same tree. The male flowers have stalks and the female flowers have no stalks. The flowers are white in in clusters in the axils of leaves. The fruit are small and oval. They are black when ripe and 10 mm long by 7 mm wide. They are edible.
A tropical tree. It grows in open woodland and near rivers. It can stand some frost. It is drought resistant. In Malawi it grows between 500-1,750 m altitude. It grows in areas with a rainfall between 800-2,500 mm per year. It can grow in arid places. It can grow in seasonally flooded areas.