Apocynaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the family are native to the European, Asian, African, Australian, and American tropics or subtropics, with some temperate members. The former family Asclepiadaceae is considered a subfamily of Apocynaceae and contains 348 genera. A list of Apocynaceae genera may be found here.
Salak is a species of palm tree native to Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It is cultivated in other regions of Indonesia as a food crop, and reportedly naturalized in Bali, Lombok, Timor, Maluku, and Sulawesi.
Syzygium samarangense is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to an area that includes the Greater Sunda Islands, Malay Peninsula and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but introduced in prehistoric times to a wider area and now widely cultivated in the tropics. Common names in English include wax apple, Java apple, Semarang rose-apple and wax jambu.
Hyphaene thebaica, with common names doum palm and gingerbread tree, is a type of palm tree with edible oval fruit. It is a native to the Arabian Peninsula and also to the northern half and western part of Africa where it is widely distributed and tends to grow in places where groundwater is present.
Carissa is a genus of shrubs or small trees native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and Asia. Until recently about 100 species were listed, but most of them have been relegated to the status of synonyms or assigned to other genera, such as Acokanthera.
Acokanthera is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. It comprises 5 species and is generally restricted to Africa, although Acokanthera schimperi also occurs in Yemen. Its sap contains the deadly cardiotoxic glycoside ouabain. The sap is among the most commonly used in arrow poisons, including those used for poaching elephant.
Omphalea is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1759. It is native to tropical parts of the Americas, the West Indies, Asia, Australia, and Africa.
Ricinodendron is a plant genus in the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1864. It includes only one known species, Ricinodendron heudelotii, native to tropical Africa from Senegal + Liberia east to Sudan and Tanzania and south to Mozambique and Angola. It produces an economically important oilseed. The tree is known as munguella (Angola), njangsa (Cameroon), bofeko (Zaire), wama (Ghana), okhuen (Nigeria), kishongo (Uganda), akpi, djansang, essang, ezezang and njasang. Two varieties of the tree species are recognized R. heudelotii var. heudelotii in Ghana and R. heudelotii var. africanum in Nigeria and westwards.
Carissa spinarum, the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called currant bush or, more ambiguously, native currant or even black currant. It is, however, neither closely related to plums (Prunus) nor to true currants (Ribes), which belong to entirely different lineages of eudicots. In India, it is also called wild karanda /wild karavanda, referring to the related karanda. Carissa spinarum is often discussed under its many obsolete synonyms.
Acokanthera schimperi, arrow poison tree, belonging to the family Apocynaceae, is a small tree native to eastern and central Africa as well as to Yemen.
Phoenix reclinata, the wild date palm, Arabian date palm or Senegal date palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family native to tropical Africa, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. It is also reportedly naturalized in Florida, Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Albania, Greece, Turkey, and the Leeward Islands. The plants are found from sea level to 3000 m, in rain forest clearings, monsoonal forests and rocky mountainsides.
Borassus flabellifer, commonly known as doub palm, palmyra palm, tala or tal palm, toddy palm, wine palm or ice apple, is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is reportedly naturalized in Socotra and parts of China.
Bouea macrophylla, commonly known as gandaria or plum mango or mango plum in English, is a species of flowering plant native to Southeast Asia. The tree belongs to the family Anacardiaceae which also includes mango and cashew.
Hyphaene petersiana, the real fan palm or makalani palm, is a palm tree native to the subtropical, low-lying regions of south central Africa.
Acokanthera oblongifolia is a plant in the family Apocynaceae. It grows as an evergreen shrub or small tree up to 6 metres (20 ft) tall. Its fragrant flowers feature a white tinged pink corolla. The berries are purple when ripe. Its habitat is dry forest and coastal thickets. Acokanthera oblongifolia is used in local African medicinal treatments for snakebites, itches and internal worms. The plant has been used as arrow poison. The species is native to Mozambique and South Africa.
Pleiocarpa is a genus of plant in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1876. It is native to tropical Africa from Senegal to Tanzania and south to Zimbabwe. As of August 2013 the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognises 6 species:
- Pleiocarpa bicarpellataStapf - Cabinda, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Zaire, Kenya
- Pleiocarpa brevistylaOmino - Gabon
- Pleiocarpa muticaBenth. - Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo
- Pleiocarpa picralimoides(Pichon) Omino - Cabinda, Republic of Congo, Gabon
- Pleiocarpa pycnantha(K.Schum) Stapf - widespread across most of tropical Africa
- Pleiocarpa rostrataBenth. - Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon
- Pleiocarpa camerunensis(K.Schum. ex Hallier f.) Stapf = Hunteria camerunensisK.Schum. ex Hallier f.
- Pleiocarpa hockiiDe Wild. - Acokanthera oppositifolia(Lam.) Codd
- Pleiocarpa simii(Stapf) Stapf ex Hutch. & Dalziel = Hunteria simii(Stapf) H.Huber
Ancylobothrys petersiana grows as a climbing shrub up to 6 metres (20 ft) tall. Its fragrant flowers feature a creamy or white corolla. Fruit is spherical, up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in diameter. Vernacular names include "climbing wild apricot". Habitat is woodland and rocky hillsides. A. petersiana is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Comoros and Madagascar.
Carpolobia goetzei is a plant species in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is endemic to forested areas, wooded steppes, and areas with alluvial soil with altitudes below 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) in Tropical East Africa between South Sudan and Mozambique, as well as northern Madagascar.
Grewia kakothamnos is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae, found from southern Ethiopia to Tanzania. Its flowers are white to pale lilac, and its two or four-lobed fruit are orange when ripe, and edible in a famine situation. Grewia kakothamnos is particularly enjoyed as a forage by domestic goats, which will even eat the dead fallen leaves during the dry season.
Bouea oppositifolia, also known as plum mango, kundang, kundangan or remenia, is a species of flowering plant, a fruit tree in the mango family, that is native to Indochina and Southeast Asia.
