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Myrianthus arboreus
Urticaceae FAMILY

Myrianthus arboreus

Myrianthus arboreus

Edibility
4/5
Medicinal
3/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitTree
Growth—

A plant of moderate elevations in the moist tropics, being found from 700 - 1,200 metres. It is found in areas where the mean annual temperature is in the range 16 - 26°c and the mean annual rainfall is 1,400 - 4,000mm[1]. Prefers a damp soil[1]. Young plants can begin producing fruit when 4 - 5 years old from seed[2]. The plant has mycorrhizal associations, thus helping to enrich the soil with nitrogen[3, 1]. A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.[3, 1]

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe[2]. About 40% of the seed germinates within 1 month, but this rate can be improved by soaking the seed for 12 hours in warm water prior to sowing[3]. The seed also germinates better if it has passed through the gut of an animal[1]. Bud grafting and stem cuttings have been successfully used for propagation in experiments[3]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Myrianthus+arboreus>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]World Agroforesty Centre — http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ ↩︎An excellent online database of a huge range of trees giving very good information on each plant - its uses, ecology, identity, propagation, pests etc.
  2. [2]Edible Wild Plants of Tanzania — Ruffo, C.K.: Birnie, A. & Tengnas, B. · Regional Land Management Unit; Nairobi. · 2002 · ISBN 9966-896-60-0 ↩︎A very well presented, simple guide to growing and utilizing wild food plants in Tanzania, with line drawings of each plant, a description, habitat and range, non-food as well as food uses, plus basic information on growing the plants.
  3. [3]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.
  4. [4]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.
  5. [5]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/
  6. [6]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  7. [7]Field Guide to the Moist Forest Trees of Tanzania. — Lovett J.C.; Ruffo C.K.; Gereau R.E.; Taplin J.R.D · Frontier · http://www.york.ac.uk/res/celp/webpages/projects/ecology/tree%20guide/introduction.htm · ISBN 1-873070-33-0 ↩︎A lovely little book giving a basic identification guide to more than 650 species of trees growing in Tanzania. It is also available to view on the internet.