Giant yellow mulberry (Myrianthus arboreus)

Family: Urticaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Myrianthus arboreus or commonly known as Giant Yellow Mulberry or Monkey Fruit is a usually 20 m high shrub or tree with stilt roots, short bole, and spreading branches. It is a source of food and medicine in tropical Africa. The leaves are compound, leathery, and whitish underneath. The young leaves are cooked while the fruits can be eaten raw. The heart-shaped, yellow, large fruit contains 5 - 15 seeds which can also be cooked.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Fruit, Berries, Nuts/Seeds, Leaves

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer, Spring

Flavor & Culinary Uses

sweet or acidulous pulp which is generally well-liked and commonly eaten. — Young leaves - cooked.; They are commonly eaten in a vegetable-soup - the soup being so highly considered by the local people as to evoke the saying that 'one will kill his child for the sake of ibishere soup'.; The fruit contains 5 - 15 seeds, each surrounded by a sweet or acidulous pulp which is generally well-liked and commonly eaten.; The fruit is heart-shaped and may attain 10 - 15 cm in diameter, it is very hard and green when unripe, but turns yellow and soft when mature.

Habitat & North American Range

Secondary vegetation; more or less open places in rain-forests; damp places in forest; forest gallery and clearings; stream or lagoon and lake sides; flooded ground; sometimes in villages. At elevations from 700 - 1,200 metres in Tanzania. (Zone 10)