Ehretia cymosa
Boraginaceae FAMILY

Ehretia cymosa

Ehretia cymosa

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The people in some areas of Africa consider the roots and leaves to be toxic to grazing animals, but the leaves are grazed without reports of adverse effects in other areas on the continent[1, 2].

Cultivation Details

HabitDeciduous Tree
GrowthFast

A fast-growing plant[1]. Trees can be coppiced or pollarded[1]. A variable species with two varieties, var. cymosa and var. zenkeri (Gur?ke) Brenan, recognized in the Region, the former extending to Uganda, the latter to E Cameroon and S. Tome. Other varieties occur in tropical Africa outside the Region[2].

Propagation

Seed - usually sown in situ within its native range. When sown fresh, the seed can start germinating within 3 days, with some seed taking up to 35 days. The seed can be stored for some time[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Ehretia+cymosa>

Pollinators

Bees

References

  1. [1]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  2. [2]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  3. [3]Traditional Vegetables in Benin — Achigan-Dako E. Et al · Darwin Initiative; International Foundation for Science · 2009 ↩︎Issued as a PDF on the Internet, it contains basic information on over 250 species of plants used for food in Benin.
  4. [4]Useful Trees and Shrubs in Eritrea — Bein. E.; Habte. B.; Jaber. A.; Birnie. A. & Tengnas. B. · Regional Soil Conservation Unit: Nairobi · 1996 · ISBN 9966-896-24-4 ↩︎A very well written and concise guide to almost 200 species. It gives a brief description of each plant together with its habitat, uses, propagation and cultivation. Line drawings of each plant are also included It can be downloaded from the internet