Syzygium cuminii or java plumb and the Swahili, Mzambarau is a fruiting tree in Tanzania and kids like the sweet/sour fruit that is inclined to leave the mouth dry. You can always tell when kids have been eating it because their mouths are stained purple.
It is a tropical tree, indigenous to India, Myanmar and the Philippines and will grow in Tanzania to 1000 metres of higher in areas with adequate rainfall.
Description: A large tree up to 30 metres high, with a thick short trunk and large, leafy crown.
Bark is rough and dark but smoother and lighter in the branches. Leaves are opposite, large and oval to 20 cm - smooth and shiny, pointed. Aromatic when crushed. Young leaves are reddish especially the tips. Flowers are green/whitish in clusters below the leaves. Fruit are fleshy and purple when ripe up 2 cm long.
Uses: Food - fruit, tannin, dye, firewood (hopefully from dead fallen branches), timber - especially canoes, shade and soil conservation.
Propagation: There are 500 seeds per Kg and they lose viability very quickly. The seed is 1 cm long and splits in half (not longitudinally as you may expect). Direct sow in a pot, but not covered in soil, just lying on top. Shade to assist in germination. Once germinated it is easy to grow but when out planted needs shade to start off.
I found that eating (or getting people to) the fruit and keeping the seed proves not to be very successful. It is best to find a tree and ask kids to collect germinated seed. Sure plenty are eaten and as is normal when there is abundance, only the best are eaten and the remainder are left to rot. In the shade of the parent tree the seed readily splits with the cotyledons poking upwards and no root radicle showing. Kids easily pick these up and they are easily planted into a pot - job done!
A very useful tree for our work because the fruit is a good source of vitamin C.
It is a tropical tree, indigenous to India, Myanmar and the Philippines and will grow in Tanzania to 1000 metres of higher in areas with adequate rainfall.
Description: A large tree up to 30 metres high, with a thick short trunk and large, leafy crown.
Bark is rough and dark but smoother and lighter in the branches. Leaves are opposite, large and oval to 20 cm - smooth and shiny, pointed. Aromatic when crushed. Young leaves are reddish especially the tips. Flowers are green/whitish in clusters below the leaves. Fruit are fleshy and purple when ripe up 2 cm long.
Uses: Food - fruit, tannin, dye, firewood (hopefully from dead fallen branches), timber - especially canoes, shade and soil conservation.
Propagation: There are 500 seeds per Kg and they lose viability very quickly. The seed is 1 cm long and splits in half (not longitudinally as you may expect). Direct sow in a pot, but not covered in soil, just lying on top. Shade to assist in germination. Once germinated it is easy to grow but when out planted needs shade to start off.
I found that eating (or getting people to) the fruit and keeping the seed proves not to be very successful. It is best to find a tree and ask kids to collect germinated seed. Sure plenty are eaten and as is normal when there is abundance, only the best are eaten and the remainder are left to rot. In the shade of the parent tree the seed readily splits with the cotyledons poking upwards and no root radicle showing. Kids easily pick these up and they are easily planted into a pot - job done!
A very useful tree for our work because the fruit is a good source of vitamin C.
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