Common Name:Sweet detar
Description
Detarium senegalense is a leguminous tree in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Unlike most members of the family, it produces globular fruits Its common names include ditax, ditakh, detar, and tallow tree. The tree is of value for several reasons: it produces nutritious fruits,is locally prominent in folk medicine is a source of quality timber.It could contribute to food security, sustainable land care, and rural development. As its Linnaean name indicates, it is native to Senegal and the surrounding countries of West Africa.Read more
References
Switchboard
Wikipedia
Meet the crops
Syzygium guineense
Common Name:Water berry
Description
Syzygium guineense is a medium-sized or tall evergreen tree, 15-30 m high. The bark varies in subspecies and is greyish-white or silver mottled and smooth in young trees, turning rough, flaky, creamy, light grey, dark brown or black in older trees. Bark scales in rectangular flakes and produces red, watery sap if cut; slash is fibrous, even pale brown to dark red-brown. Branchlets sometimes drooping. Crown rounded and heavy; stems thick and angular. Bundles of fibrous aerial roots, about 2 m up the bole, have been observed in Botswana.
Leaves narrow at both ends, length 5-17.5 cm, width 1.3-7.5 cm; simple, opposite, elliptic, lanceolate or ovate-elliptic; with margins that are untoothed and sometimes slightly wavy and rolled inward; apex obtuse to acuminate and rounded, occasionally notched; base cuneate; stalk short and grooved; midrib sunken on top …Read more
References
Switchboard
Wikipedia
Tylosema esculentum
Common Name: Marama bean
Description
Tylosema esculentum, with common names gemsbok bean and marama bean, is a long-lived perennial legume native to arid areas of southern Africa. Stems grow at least 3 metres, in a prostrate or trailing form, with forked tendrils that facilitate climbing. A raceme up to 25 millimetres (1 in) long, containing many yellow-orange flowers, ultimately produces an ovate to circular pod, with large brownish-black seeds. . . . .Read more
References
Switchboard
Wikipedia
Corchorus olitorius
Common Name: Jute mallow
Description
Corchorus olitorius, commonly known as Nalta jute, tossa jute, Jew’s mallow, West African sorrel and bush okra, is a species of shrub in the family Malvaceae. It is the primary source of jute fibre. The leaves and young fruits are used as a vegetable, the dried leaves are used for tea and as a soup thickener, and the seeds are edible.
. . . .Read more
References
Switchboard
Wikipedia