Dichapetalum cymosum
Dichapetalum cymosum
Safety & Hazards
The leaves and seeds contain alkaloids and are extremely poisonous to cattle[ 308 Title Flora Zambesiaca Publication Author Website http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants. , 328 Title African Flowering Plants Database Publication Author Website http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php Publisher Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. Year 0 ISBN Description Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map. ]. This plant is a common cause of cattle poisoning on the Kalahari Sands of southern Africa - at one time the poisonous principle was thought to be a cyanogenetic glucocide but it has now been proved to be fluoracetic acid[ 382 Title Annals of the Missouri Botanical Gardens Vol. 52 Publication Author Publisher Missouro Botanical Garden Year 1965 ISBN Description An excellent botanical publication, available for download from the Internet. Amongst other things, this issue contains parts of the Flora of Panama. ]. Handling the very young leaf is said to cause a tingling and burning sensation of the skin, an effect not found with the old leaf. Whether this is related to the reported presence of monofluoroacetate in this and other Dichapetalum species is not clear[ 407 Title BoDD (Botanical Dermatology Database) Publication Author Website http://bodd.cf.ac.uk/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Brief notes on a very wide range of plants that have reports of causing harm to the skin. ].
Botanical Description
Dichapetalum cymosum is a small shrub producing many erect, unbranched stems up to 40cm tall from a creeping, woody rootstock. The plant can form quite large, though not very dense, colonies[ 308 Title Flora Zambesiaca Publication Author Website http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants. , 328 Title African Flowering Plants Database Publication Author Website http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php Publisher Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. Year 0 ISBN Description Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map. , 775 Title Gemsbok Bean and Kalahari Truffle Publication Author Leffers A. Publisher Gamsberg MacMillan; Namibia. Year 2003 ISBN 99916-0-491-X Description Details of the traditional uses of over 200 species of plants in northeastern Namibia. Written for the non-expert, there is usually at least one photograph with each plant entry. ]. The edible fruit is sometimes gathered from the wild for local use, though all other parts of the plant are highly toxic.