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Nature's sausages!
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Long sausage-shaped fruits that hang from stalks and beautiful maroon flowers make Kigelia africana a fascinating species
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Its fruits have medicinal uses
KIGELIA AFRICANA, a native of Mozambique, belongs to the family Bigoniaceae. The mature fruits dangle from long stalks like giant sausages and, therefore, the name `sausage tree.'
A notable feature of the tree is pollination of its flowers by nectariferous bats (Chiropterophily). Trees that use bats as pollinators, most often position their flowers such that the bats can avoid navigating through cluttered vegetation, especially while flying in the dark at high speed. Therefore, the flowers of Kigelia hang much below the foliage in long pendulous inflorescence called flagelliflory.
The trees bear beautiful maroon flowers with a strong fragrance. The flowers bloom at night to coincide with the peak activity of bats.
They seem to use sonar echolocation to locate flowers in distant places and their olfactory cues to choose individual flowers to visit.
Kigella africana in full bloom
The flowers are, therefore firm, large and wide-mouthed enabling the bats to force their heads into the mass of pollen bearing anthers, to reach the nectar with their long tongues.
Powdered fruits are used as a dressing for wounds, ulcers, eczema and haemorrhoids.
They are also used as an enema in treating stomach ailments associated with worms in children. The ground bark and roots are effective in relieving toothache.
In Malawi, during famines, the seeds are roasted and eaten.
PAULINE DEBORAH & RIDLING WALLER
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