Cussonia Zimmermannii Harms
Family: Araliaceae
ENG: cabbage tree
KSW: Mbomba maji, mpapayi mwitu
GIR: Munyala
Growing on cliff. Attractive to bees wasps & flies.
Birds eat the seed.
Timber used in funeral rites.
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Species
Species
Zamioculcas Zamifolia
Family: Araceae
GIR: Konzwi
Evergreen with potato like rhizome. Grows on the coastal cliff face and will grow in dark dry shade.
Propogate from leaf cuttings, stem cuttings or rhizome offshoots.
An extract from the plant is used for ear drops.
An attractive foliage plant very suited to coastal climate.
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Hyphaene Compressa
Family: Araceae
ENG: Doum Palm
KWS: Mkoma, Mkoche
Branching palm to 18M
Fruit is eaten by baboons, monkeys and elephants.
Fruit is edible and the sap used for alcohol, leaves used for baskets and thatch. Turacos are often sitting in my palm.
Self seeded.
Butterflies & Moths
Bebearia cocalia – Spectre
Zophopetes dysmephila – Palm Tree Nighfighter
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Gonatopus Boivinii
Family: Araceae
GIR: Konzwi
Seasonally dormant tuber. Leaves to 1.2M tall, spadex green flowers appear before leaves. Self seeded. Shade/ partial shade.
An attractive foliage plant.
The roots are used to treat mumps.
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Amorphophallus Maximus
Family: Araceae
Arum family with underground tuber.
Grows on Kilifi Plantation under the tree canopy.
Leaf petiole up to 1M long. I have grown from seed.
Tabernaemontana Elegans
Family: Apocynaceae
GIR: Mudigizo
Medium size tree with white flowers and large paired fruits. Roots are medicinal.
Available from Kivukoni Indigenous Tree Nursery
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Rauvolfia Mombasiana
Family: Apocynaceae
KSW: Mti-sumu
GIR: Mumasia
A sparse evergreen tree up to 9m. The orange fruit is eaten by birds.
The bark is poisonous and used for rat poison. The root is used for medicine including treating malaria.
Moths
Selenisa affulgens
Available from Kivukoni Indigenous Tree Nursery
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Marsdenia Rubicunda
Family: Apocynaceae
( Dregea rubicunda K. Schum. (synonym))
DUR: Mubafyebafye
Self seeded Liana to 10m with unpleasant scented flowers.
The roots and stems are used for traditional medicine.
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Hunteria Zeylanica
Family: Apocynaceae
GIR: Mudigizo-mwitu
Evergreen shrub or tree to 15M.
The tree is used as a food, medicine and source of wood and latex. Sweet-scented white flowers. The 3cm long yellow orange fruit is edible.
Twigs and leaves are insecticidal. The bark has alkaloids.
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Carissa Tetramera
Family: Apocynaceae
GIR: Mtandamboo/Nvuje-ya-tsi
Shrub to 3M with scented flowers with edible fruit.
Spiny.
The leaves and roots are used medicinally.
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