Apple Leaf Lonchocarpus capassa

• This tree grows in low altitude areas in open woodland and on the banks of seasonal watercourses and found from Tanzania and Zaire in the north to Kwazulu-Natal in the south.

• The bark is smooth in young trees and is a grey-brown colour and flaky in texture.
• The flowers are small buds with a sweet sent and are lilac or purple in colour and covered in grey hairs.
• Impala, giraffe, kudu, Nyala and impala all eat the leaves.
• The larva of the large blue charaxases butterfly feed on the leaves of this tree.
• The wood is used for making tool handles, carving and in grain mortars.
• Inhaling the smoke from burning the roots is said to help with colds, and bark of root ground into powder is used to treat snakebite.
• The tree flowers from September to December and produces fruit from January to August.
• The seeds are flat, light brown and kidney shaped.