Strophanthus speciosus

The forest poison-rope, or formally Strophanthus speciosus, is a scrambling shrub or small tree typically 3 m tall but reaching 20 m in forests where canopy height is a collective achievement (SA Tree List No. 649.6).

The elliptic leaves grow in whorls of three. They are glossy green above and leathery with neat rows of many parallel, lateral veins. The leaf margins are entire, the base and tip both taper.

The yellow, sweetly scented flowers have long corolla tubes and long, narrow corolla lobes, tail-like and twisted, characteristic of the Strophanthus genus. There is a red patch at the base of each corolla lobe.

The fruit consists of paired slender follicles that turn brown and split open to release many seeds with tufts of hairs that allow wind dispersal. The seeds and leaves contain poison that was used in the past for preparing arrows for the hunt.

S. speciosus grows in the eastern parts of South Africa from the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

The habitat is evergreen forests where the tree forms part of canopies, scrub forest and narrow ravine vegetation at medium elevations. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).