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Strychnos henningsii
Loganiaceae FAMILY

Strychnos henningsii

Strychnos henningsii

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

Various parts of Strychnos plants, especially the seeds and bark, contain toxic alkaloids such as strychnine and brucine. The fleshy pulp of the ripe fruits, however, is often edible[1]. The bark contains a poisonous bitter alkaloid causing paralysis. Despite this, the plant still has significant medicinal uses[2]. The stem bark and roots are used to poison rats and mice, and sometimes also for criminal purposes[3].

Cultivation Details

HabitTree
Growth—

Found at elevations from 340 - 2,000 metres[2]. The trees respond well to coppicing and often sucker freely[2]. The flowers are hermaphrodite, but the plant reproduces cleistogamously (without being fertilized) in some localities[2] The flowers are aromatic[4].

Propagation

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

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Flora of Somalia — Thulin M. (Editor) · Kew Publishing, London. · 1993 ↩︎Detailed information on the plants of the region, often adding notes on the plants uses.
  2. [2]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.
  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]Loganiaceae — Leeuwenberg A.J.M. & Bamps P. · Meise, Jardin botanique national de Belgique · 1979 · http://10.5281/zenodo.4569937 ↩︎This publication, along with many other from the Flore d’Afrique centrale, has been made available as a PDF document under a Creative Commons - Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike 4.0 International licence (CC-BY-NC-SA)
  5. [5]Flore de Madagascar et des Comores — Humbert H. · Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle; Paris · 1946 - 1984 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ ↩︎Written in French, an excellent flora of the area though it has not been completed. Available for download from the Internet.
  6. [6]Perennial Edible Fruits of the Tropics : an Inventory — Martin, F. W.; Campbell, C. W.; Rubertbe, R. M. · U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service · 1987 ↩︎A booklet giving terse details of almost 300 species of edible fruits, plus regional lists of Botanical and Common names for over 2,500 less well-known edible fruits of the tropics.
  7. [7]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.