Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Strychnos spinosa - Kaffir orange, Natal orange

Edible parts - Fruit, Leaves, Vegetable

A shrub which loses some of its leaves during the year. It can be spiny. It grows 4-5 m tall and can be 9 m tall. It has a large rounded crown. There can be one or several trunks. The branches can be flexible or stiff and smooth or hairy. The branches have spines in pairs which are 7 mm long and have a black tip. They are slightly curved backwards. The bark is grey brown and scaly. On old branches the bark becomes corky. The leaves are oval and up to 10 cm long. They are shiny green and hairy. They are produced opposite each other. They tend to be hairy and have 3-5 veins which start near the base of the leaf. The leaf base is wedge shaped. The flowers are small and pale green. They occur in groups at the ends of branches. The fruit is round and 5-17 cm across. It is green and becomes light brown at maturity. Sometimes the fruit is prickly. The fruit have a hard shell. The flesh of the ripe fruit is edible. The seeds are flat and poisonous. Fruit from trees with short fruit stalks are sweet while fruit from trees with long fruit stalks and narrow leaves are bitter.

A tropical plant. It grows in the drier areas of tropical Africa. It grows in the Sahel. It is in open woodland and secondary forest. It grows in areas with more than 500 mm rainfall per year. It will grow on slopes and ridges and is a tough tree. It grows up to 1,500 m altitude. In West Africa it grows up to 2,200 m altitude. It can grow in arid places. It grows in Miombo woodland in Africa. It suits hardiness zones 10-12.