''Saba comorensis'' is a species of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
in the
Apocynaceae
Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the ...
family.
It is commonly called bungo fruit (pl. mabungo), mbungo, or rubber vine and is widespread across most of tropical
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
as well as in
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
and
Comoros
The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...
. It grows in
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
and
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
, for example on the islands of
Pemba Pemba may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Places
* Pemba Island, in Tanzania
* Pemba, Mozambique, the capital of Cabo Delgado Province
* Pemba, Zambia, a small town
Individuals
* George Pemba, South African painter
* Pemba (panda), a red panda
* Tsewang Yishe ...
and
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
. The species belongs to the genus ''Saba'' from the family
Apocynaceae
Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the ...
. The fruit looks similar to an orange with a hard orange peel but when opened it contains a dozen or so pips, which have the same texture as a mango seed with the fibres and juices all locked in these fibres.
The fruit also makes a delicious juice drink which has been described as tasting "somewhere between a mango, an orange and a pineapple" The aromatic juice of the bungo fruit is also popular and highly appreciated on
Pemba Island
Pemba Island ( ar, الجزيرة الخضراء ''al-Jazīra al-khadrā'', literally "The Green Island"; sw, Pemba kisiwa) is a Tanzanian island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean.
Geog ...
and other parts of coastal
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
.
Not only in the Tanzanian
Mahale Mountains National Park, ''S. comorensis'' is dispersed by
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
s.
[James V. Wakibara. Abundance and dispersion of some chimpanzee-dispersed fruiting plants at Mahale, Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology Vol. 43, Issue 2, pp. 107–113, May 2005. Article first published online: 27 MAY 2005. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2005.00553.x]
References
External links
Rubber vine or MabungoWorld Agroforestry CentreWest African Plant DatabaseGeorg Schweinfurth: Sammlung botanischer Zeichnungen im BGBM, GermanyLost crops of Africa: Volume III: Fruits (2008). Gumvines (pp. 270-279)
Rauvolfioideae
Tropical fruit
Flora of Madagascar
Flora of the Comoros
Fruits originating in Africa
Plants described in 1844
Taxa named by Marcel Pichon
Taxa named by Wenceslas Bojer
Taxa named by Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle
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