Changes

The bark is made into very strong string. In Kenya this string is used for making fish-traps, and the root for making woven bags. The tree provides shade and amenity.

Monoecious shrub, small tree or liana up to 15 m tall, with aerial roots; outer bark smooth, pale grey, not flaking off, inner bark fibrous, with milky, white latex; young branches sparsely hairy to glabrous. Leaves spirally arranged, simple; stipules free, up to 1(–3) cm long, glabrous, caducous; petiole 0.5–4.5 cm long; blade oblong, elliptical, ovate or obovate, 2–11 cm × 0.5–5 cm, base obtuse to rounded to emarginate or cordate, apex acute to acuminate, margin entire, papery to leathery, both surfaces glabrous or the midvein hairy beneath, pinnately veined with 5–9 pairs of lateral veins, with glandular spot at the base of the midvein beneath. Inflorescence a fig, the flowers enclosed within, figs 1–6 together on curved spurs up to 3 cm long on older wood, globose to ellipsoid, 1–3.5 cm in diameter, densely hairy to glabrous, greenish to brown at maturity; peduncle 0.5–3 cm long; basal bracts 2, 2–3 mm long, lateral bracts absent. Flowers unisexual; male flowers with 2–4 tepals and 1–4 stamens; female flowers with 2–4 tepals. Fruit ellipsoid to ovoid, 1.5–2 mm long, developing within the fig.