Description
Sausage Tree – Kigelia africana. 3.7L coir pot.
Native to tropical Africa, this fast growing, evergreen tree features peculiar sausage-like fruit up to 80cm in length.
In its native habitat, it grows in open woodlands, in floodplains, and along riverbanks and streams.
In early summer, large, blood-red, tulip-shaped flowers hang on long, pendulous stalks. The tree flowers mainly at night, attracting pollinators such as bats, birds and insects.
The leaves can be dried and eaten, and they contain minerals such as calcium, iron and magnesium.
The unripe fruit is poisonous to humans, but they can be baked and sliced so the cooked pulp can be consumed. Cooked sausage tree fruit is a common ingredient used in making traditional African beer.
The seeds can be roasted and eaten, and are a good nutritional resource as they contain essential fatty acids and are energy-rich.
Sausage tree wood is used to make an African xylophone instrument.
Dried whole sausage tree fruit can be used as firewood, as it burns well due to the oil content in the seeds.
The plant enjoys a full sun position in free draining soil and should grow around 10m high in the garden.
