Omphalocarpum elatum
Omphalocarpum elatum
Safety & Hazards
None known
Cultivation Details
The plant flowers and fruits throughout the year, the fruits taking about one year to ripen[1]. They are eaten by elephants, which are the only animals able to crack open the hard, thick shell. The elephants swallow the pulp together with the seeds, which are deposited in the dung and thus dispersed. It seems that the presence of elephants is needed for successful seed germination under natural conditions, because the seeds of rotten fruits on the ground are destroyed by insects and seedlings are not found under trees in regions where elephants have disappeared[1].
Propagation
Seed - those that have passed through an elephant’s gut germinate after about 2 weeks; seeds extracted from the fruits take 3 - 9 weeks[1]. The seedlings are probably shade tolerant[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Omphalocarpum+elatum>
Pollinators
Data unavailable
References
- [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]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]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.