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Monkey Apple Tree
The Monkey Apple tree (Strychnos madagascariensis) can be found in open woodland, on rocky koppies, and in riverine and coastal forests in all of Southern Africa.
Description
The bark of the tree is light grey in colour and smooth to the touch. The flowers are greenish yellow and very small. The fruit is very distinctive, being almost perfectly spherical. The plants have opposite leaves and bear cymes of white or yellowish flowers that have a four-lobed or five-lobed calyx, a four-parted or five-parted corolla, five stamens, and a solitary pistil. The fruit is a berry.
Fruit
The fruit flesh of the Monkey Apple is delicious to eat, but the pips are very bitter because they contain strychnine and other poisonous alkaloids. The fruit can also be left to ferment in the sun and is used to make bitter tasting beer.
Certain tribes remove the flesh from the fruit, sun or oven dry this and then grind it into a porridge which can be kept, unrefrigirated, for up to 3 years. The pulp can be turned into porridge by mixing it with honey and is very tasty. Even today the pulp of the fruit is still bartered for at certain markets in Maputuland,
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Monkey Apple Fruit
Medicinal Uses:
Africans use the roots of the Strychnos madagascariensis tree as an emetic. The roots are ground up, mixed with hot water and taken orally. A paste is made from the fruit for treating jigger fleas.
Indigenous Practices:
Africans gather the fruits of the Monkey Apple tree and the Baobab (Adonsia digitata) and make them into unique candleholders, candles, pencil tidies, pots, and ornaments.
They strip the skin which is sun dried for several months, then decorated with traditional designs, and hand polished using fine wax and oils. Some fruits are used in wire, glass and wicker baskets as attractive ornaments, and others in bathrooms and conservatories.
Candles are also made from the shells using fine parafin wax and will burn drip free. When all the wax has burned out the holder may be refilled.
The Red Trail is the longest trail in Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve and takes you on a grand tour of the reserve, almost following the perimeter of the reserve. Sightings of forest and plains wildlife are just about guaranteed - this includes zebras, monkeys and if you are lucky a duiker or shy bushbuck.
From the parking waypoint, the walk to the cache is approximately 1.0 km over mostly level-ish terrain. Although there are some streams along the trail, it is recommended that you take your own water. Allow an hour for the walk (mostly in shaded riverine forest) - this will give you enough time to appreciate your surroundings and do a bit of birding. Purple crested turacos are common in the reserve.
At the parking co-ordinates there are a number of braai places, so take the family, charcoal, and braai goodies.
Reserve opening hours are from 06h00 to 18h00. A small admission charge is levied, but holders of Rhino Cards get free entry.