Terminalia stenostachya
Terminalia stenostachya is a deciduous or semideciduous shrub growing up to 4 metres tall; or a tree with a rounded or flat-rounded crown; it can grow 5 - 12 metres tall, occasionally to 20 metres.
The bark is used locally as a snuff.
Trema orientalis
Trema orientalis is a fast-growing evergreen shrub or tree with a heavy branching, rounded to spreading crown, reaching heights of up to 18 meters.
It has a short, basally swollen bole that can reach 60 cm in diameter.
The plant has diverse traditional uses for food, medicine, and other commodities. It is widely utilized in agroforestry as a shade tree and pioneer species, and also grown in plantations for timber and ornamental purposes.
Trichilia emetica
Trichilia emetica is an evergreen or briefly deciduous tree with a pyramidal crown that gradually becomes rounded and heavy as the tree grows older.
It usually grows up to 21 metres tall but occasional specimens can reach 30 metres. The trunk is swollen at the base, sometimes becoming fluted with age.
An important multipurpose tree for local people, harvested from the wild and providing food, medicines and various commodities. The tree is cultivated on a small scale for the oil obtained from its seed, there is a small international market for this oil.
The tree has been widely planted as a street or garden tree to provide shade. It is ideal for car-parking areas as it never grows very high and has an evergreen, spreading crown.
Vanilla planifolia
Vanilla is a succulent-stemmed, perennial climbing plant, producing a stem that can be 5 - 15 metres or more long. The plant grows into trees, supporting itself by means of aerial roots that are produced from the stem nodes. It is often epiphytic, or becomes epiphytic as the lower portion of the stem withers and dies.
Vanilla is one of the world's most important spices.
It is widely cultivated throughout the tropics, mainly on the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Tahitii, Java and the Seychelles, for its edible seed pod, which is much used as a sweet, aromatic flavouring in ice cream and a wide range of sweet dishes.
Xanthosoma sagittaefolium
Blue taro is a perennial plant producing arrow-shaped leaves from a short, thick underground rhizome. The leaves are 20 - 50cm long on petioles 30 - 70cm long.
The plant is often cultivated for its edible roots and leaves in parts of the tropics.
Zingiber officinale
Zingiber officinale is a slender, erect, herbaceous perennial plant growing from 30 - 150cm tall. It has a robust, branched rhizome that is borne horizontally near the soil surface, bearing leafy shoots close together.
A very popular spice and natural medicine, ginger has a long history of cultivation and use, with records going back almost 2,000 years.
It is mainly cultivated in the tropics from sea level to 1,500 metres, thriving in hot, moist conditions, but able to be grown over more diverse conditions than most other spices.
Ziziphus abyssinica
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.
Ziziphus mauritiana
Ziziphus mauritiana is a much-branched, evergreen but rather thorny tree with a spreading crown. It grows up to 15 meters tall with a bole 40 cm or more in diameter. It can spread by suckers to form a thicket of growth.
In severe climatic conditions, it often grows as a compact shrub reaching 3 - 4 meters tall. It is a valuable commercial fruit crop widely cultivated in southeastern Asia and other regions including Africa, Australia, the Pacific, and the Americas.
Ziziphus mucronata
Ziziphus mucronata is usually a spiny, deciduous shrub or medium-sized tree growing up to 9 metres tall, though specimens up to 30 metres have been reported.
The bole is frequently crooked; the branches spreading, often drooping.
A multipurpose tree, it is harvested from the wild and also sometimes cultivated (especially as a hedge) for its edible, medicinal and other uses.
