📷 Lost Crops Of Africa "Green Monkey Orange Tree"

Tree with Mouthwatering Potential Called Monkey Oranges

Strychnos spinosa: Spiny monkey orange/Green monkey orange (English) Doringklapper (Afrikaans) is about the same size as a grapefruit, skin will go orange to brown when rip and ready to eat.

Green Monkey Orange Tree

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Monkey Orange Trees Fruit is good for storing, staying edible in the tropical heat for months after maturity. Taste offers a sweet and sour flavour, rich in vitamen C and B, traditionally eaten raw (NB: avoid the pips they can kill if chewed, Strychnine inside).

Here is the offical name of the tree, life gets easier when the parks take the initiative to tell you what you are looking at, research tells more when interested what the nut like fruit offers.

Green Monkey Orange Trees

A medium to small tree in size from 2 to 6 meters in height, with glossy deep green leaves of an evergreen tree living in tropical and sub-tropical Africa.

By what I have read and heard the tree will not be chopped down in the fields, apparently no one farms the tree, they are often seen as a lost tree in agriculture?

The outer shell is exceptionally hard, some areas carvings onto the fruit are sold. Cracking open with a hammer and broad knife combination, tapping on the outer shell to break in half neatly to get to the fruit, (I notice this method is used, now I know when I find one ripe enough to eat).

Green Monkey Orange Trees

Animals such as baboon, monkeys, bushpig, nyala and eland eat the fruit. The leaves are a popular food source for browsers such as duiker, kudu, impala, steenbok, nyala and elephant. It is believed that various insects pollinate the flowers.

The leaves, roots and fruit (seeds) are used medicinally. Some people use root infusions as a treatment for snakebite. Others use the bark and unripe fruit. It is believed that the presence of strychnine in the bark and unripe fruit along with other alkaloids are responsible for helping overcome the venom of certain snakes, such as mamba. Strychnine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant that may be able to fight the respiratory depression cased be the venom of these snakes. It is also used as a purgative, for uterine problems and to treat sore eyes. A decoction of the leaf or root is used as an analgesic in Central Africa.

The dried fruit, after the seeds are removed, are often used as sounding-boxes for musical instruments such as the marimba. They are also carved and sold as curios.

The fruit is edible and often sun dried as a food preserve. The seeds must be avoided though as they are poisonous or could have purgative effects. - http://pza.sanbi.org/strychnos-spinosa

Green Monkey Orange Trees

Photography has been resized for Steemit (to allow easier transfer on slow internet connection), no software manipulation on my photography, keep it true to what you see.

Thought for Today: A patient man will eat ripe fruit. ~ African proverb