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Useful Tropical Plants

Bridelia cathartica

Bertol.

Phyllanthaceae

+ Synonyms

Bridelia fischeri Pax

Bridelia lingelsheimii Gehrm.

Bridelia melanthesoides (Klotzsch ex Baill.) Klotzsch

Bridelia niedenzui Gehrm.

Bridelia schlechteri Hutch.

Pentameria melanthesoides Klotzsch ex Baill.

Common Name:

No Image.

General Information

Bridelia cathartica is a very variable plant. It can range from a scrambling or erect, single- or many-stemmed, much branched shrub or a small tree growing up to 7 metres tall. Tree forms have a dense rounded crown and horizontal or pendent branches[
328
Title
African Flowering Plants Database
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php
Publisher
Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques.
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map.
].
The leaves and fruits are harvested from the wild for local food use.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

308
Title
Flora Zambesiaca
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.

Range

Eastern and southern Africa - Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique.

Habitat

On sandy soil and dunes, in coastal bush, littoral scrub and dune woodland and forest, also in secondary forest and old cultivations at elevations from near sea level to 345 metres[
308
Title
Flora Zambesiaca
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
].

Properties

Edibility Rating *  *
HabitShrub
Height4.00 m
Cultivation StatusWild

Cultivation Details

Not known

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw[
301
Title
Cornucopia II
Publication
 
Author
Facciola. S.
Publisher
Kampong Publications, California.
Year
1998
ISBN
0-9628087-2-5
Description
The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
]. The dark red to almost black round fruit is small[
301
Title
Cornucopia II
Publication
 
Author
Facciola. S.
Publisher
Kampong Publications, California.
Year
1998
ISBN
0-9628087-2-5
Description
The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
].

The leaves are chewed prior to drinking water - the water then tastes sweet[
301
Title
Cornucopia II
Publication
 
Author
Facciola. S.
Publisher
Kampong Publications, California.
Year
1998
ISBN
0-9628087-2-5
Description
The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -
Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2024-04-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Bridelia+cathartica>

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