Centrapalus pauciflorus

Botanical Description

Centrapalus pauciflorus is a mainly unbranched, usually annual plant that can grow 3 - 5 metres tall, but is usualy much smaller, sometimes only 20cm tall. It sometimes forms branches near the top[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ]. The plant was noted as a potential source of vernolic acid in the 1950's, but efforts to domesticate it failed. Specimens collected from semi-arid areas of eastern Ethiopia in 1964 combined a high vernolic acid content with a promising seed yield and good seed retention. These collections have been used to develop a potential industrial oil crop in several parts of the world[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ]. Due to the high oil and vernolic acid content, and its relatively low shattering nature, subsp. Galamensis var. ethiopica M.G.Gilbert has been the focus of research aiming at domestication and commercialization[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ].