Hymenocardia ulmoides (PROTA)
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Introduction |
| General importance |  
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| Geographic coverage Africa |
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| Geographic coverage World |
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| Vegetable |
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| Spice / condiment |
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| Dye / tannin |
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| Essential oil / exudate |
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| Medicinal |
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| Timber |
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| Fuel |
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| Ornamental |
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| Forage / feed |
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| Fibre |
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| Food security |
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Hymenocardia ulmoides Oliv.
- Protologue: Hook.f., Icon. pl. 12: t. 1131 (1873).
- Family: Euphorbiaceae (APG: Phyllanthaceae)
Synonyms
- Hymenocardia capensis (Pax) Hutch. (1920).
Vernacular names
- Small red-heart tree, lesser red heart (En).
- Mteti (Sw).
Origin and geographic distribution
Hymenocardia ulmoides occurs from Cameroon eastward to southern Sudan and Tanzania, and south to Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and northern South Africa.
Uses
The wood is used in construction, e.g. for beams and wall and roofing laths, for fence posts, fish traps, as firewood, and for making charcoal. The bark is used for tanning hides and to dye cloth yellow or brownish. Bark decoctions are taken as astringent and against headache and cough, and decoctions of young leaves are used as astringent and to treat stomach-ache, cramps, intercostal neuralgia, epilepsy, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and cough. A decoction of the root bark is taken against anaemia. The bark is also used to treat gonorrhoea. The leaves, roots and bark enter in treatments of bronchitis, asthma, genito-urinary infections, haemorrhoids, fever, epilepsy, oral and throat problems, worms, stiffness of the limbs, rheumatism, threatened abortion and abscesses. The young twigs and leaves taste refreshingly sour and are eaten as a vegetable. The plants also serve as feed for goats and sheep. Formerly, salt was made from the ashes. Because of its attractive foliage and fruits the tree has ornamental value. Edible caterpillars are collected from the tree.
Properties
The wood is pinkish brown, darkening to orange-brown upon drying, with a straight grain and fine texture, hard and strong but elastic. It is durable, being resistant against insect attack. The bark contains 14–16% tannin.
Description
- Dioecious shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20(–30) m tall, with bole up to 60(–75) cm in diameter; bark surface smooth or longitudinally fissured, grey or greyish brown; crown spreading; twigs short-hairy, becoming glabrous.
- Leaves alternate, simple and entire, yellow-orange or reddish when young; stipules linear to lanceolate, 3–6 mm long, caducous; petiole (0.2–)0.5–1 cm long, short-hairy; blade ovate to elliptical, 1–5.5 cm × 0.5–4 cm, cuneate to rounded at base, obtuse to acuminate at apex, thick-papery or thin-leathery, glabrous except for tufts of hairs in the vein axils beneath, with sparse gland dots beneath, pinnately veined with 4–8 pairs of inconspicuous lateral veins.
- Inflorescence axillary, usually on a short lateral shoot, 1–3 cm long, hairy, bracts up to 3 mm long; male inflorescence a lax spike often arranged in a panicle, many-flowered; female inflorescence a short raceme, up to 5-flowered.
- Flowers unisexual, regular, calyx with (4–)5(–8) lobes, petals and disk absent; male flowers sessile, with cup-shaped, greenish white calyx c. 1.5 mm long, stamens opposite the calyx lobes, c. 2 mm long, rudimentary ovary c. 1 mm long; female flowers with c. 1.5 mm long pedicel extending to up to 1 cm in fruit, calyx lobes nearly free, linear, 2–3 mm long, ovary superior, obovoid to oblong-ellipsoid, c. 1 mm long, glabrous, with a few glands, 2-celled, styles 2, up to 5(–15) mm long, reddish.
- Fruit a nearly orbicular, flat, 2-celled capsule, almost completely surrounded by a wing, 1.5–2.5 cm × 1–2.5 cm, with 1–4 mm long stipe at base, notched at the apex, glabrous, whitish to brown, yellow or reddish, indehiscent or splitting into 2 parts, each 1-seeded.
- Seeds semicircular-oblong, 7–9 mm × 2–4 mm, smooth, purplish brown to blackish.
- Seedling with epigeal germination; hypocotyl 2–3.5 cm long; cotyledons leafy, elliptical, 1–1.5 cm long; first leaves alternate.
Other botanical information
In the Central African Republic flowering occurs in October–November, in central Congo in January–February. In southern Africa flowering is mainly in November–December, and fruit ripening peaks in March–April. Seed is dispersed by wind.
Hymenocardia comprises about 6 species, 5 of which occur in continental Africa and 1 in South-East Asia. It has been placed in a family of its own, Hymenocardiaceae.
Hymenocardia lyrata
Hymenocardia lyrata Tul. is a shrub or small tree up to 15 m tall, occurring from Senegal to Ghana, mainly in gallery forest and savanna. Its hard and pinkish brown wood is probably used for similar purposes as that of Hymenocardia ulmoides, and also as firewood. In Sierra Leone root decoctions are taken to relieve stomach-ache and to hasten child delivery.
Ecology
Hymenocardia ulmoides occurs in riverine and coastal thickets, high-rainfall woodland, gully forest on rocky outcrops, wooded grassland and disturbed localities, up to 1500 m altitude. In DR Congo it is locally common in closed forest and disturbed forest. It is often found on sandy soils.
Management
Hymenocardia ulmoides can be coppiced, but often regrows to a bushy form.
Genetic resources
Hymenocardia ulmoides is widespread and locally common. There are no indications that it is in danger of genetic erosion.
Prospects
Hymenocardia ulmoides does not seem to have prospects as a timber tree of commercial importance because the size of the bole is usually small. It will probably remain of some importance for construction purposes because its wood is durable. Research is warranted on phytochemistry and pharmacological activities because several plant parts are commonly used in local medicine.
Major references
- Adjanohoun, E.J., Ahyi, A.M.R., Aké Assi, L., Baniakina, J., Chibon, P., Cusset, G., Doulou, V., Enzanza, A., Eymé, J., Goudoté, E., Keita, A., Mbemba, C., Mollet, J., Moutsamboté, J.-M., Mpati, J. & Sita, P. (Editors), 1988. Médecine traditionnelle et pharmacopée - Contribution aux études ethnobotaniques et floristiques en République Populaire du Congo. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, Paris, France. 606 pp.
- Coates Palgrave, K., 2002. Trees of southern Africa. 3rd Edition. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa. 1212 pp.
- Gaugris, J.Y., van Rooyen, M.W., Bothma, J. du P. & van der Linde, M.J., 2007. Hard wood utilization in buildings of rural households of the Manquakulane community, Maputaland, South Africa. Ethnobotany Research & Applications 5: 97–114.
- Latham, P., 2004. Useful plants of Bas-Congo province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. DFID, London, United Kingdom. 320 pp.
- Radcliffe-Smith, A., 1996. Euphorbiaceae, subfamilies Phyllantoideae, Oldfieldioideae, Acalyphoideae, Crotonoideae and Euphorbioideae, tribe Hippomaneae. In: Pope, G.V. (Editor). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 9, part 4. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. pp. 1–337.
Other references
- Aubréville, A., 1950. Flore forestière soudano-guinéenne. Société d’Editions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales, Paris, France. 533 pp.
- Burkill, H.M., 1994. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 2, Families E–I. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 636 pp.
- Carter, S. & Radcliffe-Smith, A., 1988. Euphorbiaceae (part 2). In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. pp. 409–597.
- Favier, C., de Namur, C. & Dubois, M., 2004. Forest progression modes in littoral Congo, Central Atlantic Africa. Journal of Biogeography 31: 1445–1461.
- Latham, P., 2003. Edible caterpillars and their food plants in Bas-Congo. Mystole Publications, Mystole, United Kingdom. 60 pp.
- Lebbie, A.R. & Guries, R.P., 1995. Ethnobotanical value and conservation of sacred groves of the Kpaa Mende in Sierra Leone. Economic Botany 49(3): 297–308.
- Léonard, J. & Mosango, M., 1985. Hymenocardiaceae. Flore d’Afrique centrale. Spermatophytes. Jardin botanique national de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. 16 pp.
- Lovett, J.C., Ruffo, C.K. & Gereau, R.E., 2003. Field guide to the moist forest trees of Tanzania. [Internet] Centre for Ecology Law and Policy, Environment Department, University of York, York, United Kingdom. 192 pp. http://www.cepf.net/ Documents/Final_LovettRuffoGereau_FieldGuide.pdf. September 2010.
- Neuwinger, H.D., 2000. African traditional medicine: a dictionary of plant use and applications. Medpharm Scientific, Stuttgart, Germany. 589 pp.
- Raponda-Walker, A. & Sillans, R., 1961. Les plantes utiles du Gabon. Paul Lechevalier, Paris, France. 614 pp.
Author(s)
- L.P.A. Oyen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands
Correct citation of this article
Oyen, L.P.A., 2011. Hymenocardia ulmoides Oliv. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 24 April 2026.
- See the Prota4U database.