5 Bruinstinkhout - Coastal Goldenleaf - Bridelia micrantha Seeds - Indigenous Edible Fruit Tree

Bridelia micrantha Seeds

Bruinstinkhout, Bruin-stinkhout; Coastal Goldenleaf

Bridelia is a plant genus of the family Phyllanthaceae. This genus comprises approximately between 60 and 70 species, found from Africa, Australia and Asia. The genus Bridelia was named in the honor of Samuel Elisée Bridel-Brideri by the German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow. Bridelia micrantha commonly known as the Bruinstinkhout, Bruin-stinkhout or Coastal Goldenleaf is a South African indigenous species from the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces. Beautiful, fast growing shade tree, usually with scattered bright red leaves. Medium to large deciduous tree up to 20 m with spreading crown. Bark greyish brown, flaky, rough in older specimens, sometimes with small blunt spines at bottom of trunks or on branches; twigs with lenticels. Leaves alternate, elliptic to obovate, 40–180 x 25–120 mm, usually 70–80 x 35–40 mm, dark green, glossy above, paler green below, frequently bright orange in autumn; lateral veins often yellowish, running straight to the margin and forming a ‘herring-bone' pattern; apex tapering to rounded, margin entire. Flowers in small tight yellow clusters in axils of leaves (Oct.–Dec.). Fruit an oval berry, 8 x 4 mm, black when mature, edible and sweet tasting (Jan.– Mar.).