Impala Lily

Description:

Adenium multiflorum is a deciduous succulent shrub or small tree, 0.5-3 m tall, the shape resembling a miniature baobab. Stems arise from a large underground rootstock. The bark is shiny grey to brown, with poisonous watery latex. For most of the year the plants do not have flowers or leaves. The leaves are up to 100 mm long, shiny green above and pale below, usually much broader towards the tip, and are carried in clusters at the growing tips of the branches. They are shed before flowering.

Habitat:

Inside a rest camp in Kruger national park, probably planted.

Notes:

The genus Adenium consists of five succulent species from tropical Africa, Arabia and Socotra. Their striking forms and beautiful flowers borne in masses over a long period make them excellent garden and container plants. The fruit is usually paired, cylindrical follicles up to 240 mm long. The seeds are brown with a tuft of silky hairs. The impala lily is on the Red Data lists of Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe where it is regarded as threatened. Most of its distributional range in South Africa falls within the Kruger National Park where it is protected, although it does not have any threatened status in South Africa. The main threats to the species are collection for horticulture, medicinal use, agriculture and browsing by wild animals. Baboons, for example, have been seen uprooting whole plants to feed on the tuberous rootstock. The impala lily is known in Africa and southern Africa as a source of fish poison and arrow poison. The poison is prepared from latex in the bark and fleshy parts of the trunk, but it is always used in combination with other poisons. Leaves and flowers are poisonous to goats and cattle, but the plants are sometimes heavily browsed and are not considered to be of much toxicological significance. Despite the toxicity, it is used in medicinal applications and as magic potions.