Octopus Cabbage Tree in Zimbabwe

Tree species named cussonia kirkii , English word octopus cabbage tree.The local Zimbaweans in their own chishona dialect called it 'mufenje' is found in zimbabwe ,but densely populated in central parts of the country stretching from south to the north east along the zambezi valley.
The shona people usually has an expression which includes this tree which says "Mbudzi kudya mufenje hufananyina" This simply means a kid goat can just start eating this tree species as soon as it start browsing because the goats used to eat it without being taught or copying.
The use of this tree as a medicine is popularly talked about especially by the traditional healers ,but unfortunately they don't want to disclose this information to the public as their secret is essential for their trade to be valued by those patients who visited them seeking traditional treatments .
Some time ago the tree has no economical value to the local shona people until they discovered that its timber is good at making xylophone keys which t popularly known by locals as the 'marimba' for musicians.
The tree structure vary in size from 3-10 metres in height although the average height is 4-8metres.The tree looks untidy not very tall but bundy.In the bushes the species are found in rock areas occurring mostly in brachystegia woodlands.
The leaves are large and divided like a human hand fingers into five or more leaflets.Leaf stalk may be 30 cm long with or without very fine hairs.
Flowers yellowish-green small and reproduced on along twisty spikes. The spikes develop at the end of the branches.The octopus cabbage trees usually do frowering in september to November annually.
The fruit small ,purple and slightly fleshy almost spherical and thin.The fruit diameter range from 5-7mm when mature.They closely clustered along the axes.The fruits develop from November to January soon after the frowering season.
The barks light brown ,corky can easily cracked with a sharp knife can produce a liquid which is white in colour and is very attractive.
Most of the tourists who visited the game parks got a good serenity from this trees species and some tourists I talked with they said this tree is densely scattered in Manna pools along the Zambezi river and it provides good shade during the hot season. Above all its leaves are good sources of nutritious food for animals and domesticated goats.The Zimbawe National Parks and wild life run the campaigns to the local people to conserve these trees species which also can attract tourists when viewing wildlife in Zimbabwe.