Euphorbiaceae FAMILY

Pycnocoma macrophylla

Edibility

0/5

Medicinal

2/5

Safety & Hazards

The plant is very poisonous and has sometimes been used for criminal poisoning^[1]. Ingestion causes immediate and prolonged intestinal shock^[1]. Although all parts of the plant are strongly purgative, the plant has local medicinal uses^[2]. The plant is used s a fish poison^{[2, 1]}.

Cultivation Details

HabitShrub

Growth—

The flowers have a strong, repellent smell^[2].

Propagation

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

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

[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]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.
[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.