The mighty marula tree

This indigenous fruit tree has been a valuable food source in Africa for centuries

COMPILED BY CHARLEA SIEBERHAGEN-GREY INFOGRAPHIC: MICHAEL DE LUCCHI

THE ma r u l a tree has been around on the African continent for thousands of years. There’s evidence the continent’s ancient nations ate the tree’s fruit.

The marula is referred to as “the king of African trees” and few other trees are as highly regarded among Africa’s people as the marula tree. It’s not just its fruit that makes the tree so highly valued – from its bark to the leaves, almost every part of the tree is useful, making it one of the most versatile trees in the world.

ANIMALS LOVE IT B Elephants, especially, love the marula tree. They eat the bark, branches, leaves and fruit. Elephants can use their trunks to pick the fruit – they don’t have to wait for it to drop to the ground. B Other animals such as warthogs, baboons, giraffes, rhinos, zebras and kudus also eat the tree’s leaves and fruit. B The tree’s flowers are pollinated by a variety of insects. B The larvae of the African moon moth (Argema mimosae) eat the tree’s leaves. B Small rodents eat the seeds. USES

B Amarula is a South African liqueur made from the fermented fruit. B The fruit are also used to make juice and jam. B The seeds are crushed to extract marula oil. This is used in cosmetics and the San people also eat it. B The skin of the fruit can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. B The juice in the leaves is a natural remedy for spider bites, burns and abscesses. The leaves can also be chewed to relieve heartburn or indigestion. B An infusion of the inner bark can relieve the pain of scorpion stings, snake bites and insect bites. The bark is also traditionally used in the prevention and treatment of malaria. ‘I WANT A SON’

There’s an old belief among the Venda people that if a pregnant woman wants her baby to be a boy, she must drink an infusion of a male marula tree’s bark. And if she drinks an infusion of a female tree’s bark, the baby will be a girl. If the baby is the opposite gender to the tree from which the infusion was made, the child is considered special because it defied the spirits of the ancestors.