PlantPeers
Back to Catalog
No image available
Capparaceae FAMILY

Maerua pseudopetalosa

Maerua pseudopetalosa

Edibility
1/5
Medicinal
1/5

Safety & Hazards

Tetramethylammonium iodide, known as tetramine for short, is reported present in the tuberous root, shoot and leaf. This substance has proved fatal to humans within a quarter hour[1]. Di-, tri- and tetra-methylamine hydroxide have also been found[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial
Growth—

A plant of medium elevations in the drier tropics.

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Maerua+pseudopetalosa>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]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/
  2. [2]African Flowering Plants Database — Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. · http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php ↩︎Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map.
  3. [3]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.