Ziziphus abyssinica is a fiercely thorny, semi-deciduous plant, varying in habit from an erect shrub; a scrambling plant that clambers into other vegetation for support; or a tree with drooping branches that form a heavy, rounded crown. It usually grows from 3 - 12 metres tall. The bole is usually straight.
The plant is harvested from the wild as a local source of food, medicines and other materials. It is sometimes cultivated as a stock-proof hedge.

Known Hazards

None known

Habitat

Scattered tree grassland, Combretum-Terminalia woodlands, Acacia woodlands and bushland, mainly at medium to low elevations from 400 - 2,200 metres.

Cultivation Status

Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant usually of the drier areas of the hot tropics, where it can be found at elevations from 400 - 2,000 metres.
It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 18 - 28°c, but can tolerate 8 - 45°c.
The plant can tolerate some frosts.
It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 500 - 1,800mm, but tolerates 300 - 2,000mm.
Requires a sunny position.
Succeeds on a wide range of well-drained soils, including limestone.
Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 7.5, tolerating 5 – 8. Established plants are drought tolerant.

Edible Uses

Fruit – raw.
A bitter-sweet flavour.
The seed are discarded. The fruit is sometimes eaten as a snack, especially by children and herdsmen, but is more commonly viewed as a famine food, eaten only when nothing better is available.
The shiny, red-brown, rounded fruit is 2 - 3cm in diameter containing 1 - 2 seeds.
Leaves - cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

Medicinal

The roots are boiled and the liquid drunk as a treatment for after-birth pains, stomach-ache, snakebite, and also to induce abortion.
A decoction of the roots, mixed with those of Rhynchosia resinosa, is drunk as a treatment for stomach-ache.
The roots are pounded and the powder is rubbed on the chest, which is first scarified, as a treatment for pneumonia.
The leaves are boiled and used as a steam bath for the treatment of pneumonia.
Ash from the burnt leaves is mixed with common salt and rubbed externally on to the throat to relieve tonsillitis.

Agroforestry Uses

None Recorded

Other Uses

A cinnamon-coloured dye is obtained from the bark.
The dark-brown to black wood is hard, heavy and resistant to termites and borers.
It is used for furniture, interior work, carving, building poles and tool handles.
The wood is used for fuel and for making charcoal.

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe.