Vernac. names.—Ewuro (Abeokuta, Irving); Grabra (Abyssinia, Fl. Trop. Afr. l.c.); Libo (St. Thomas, Welwitsch).—Bitter leaf of Sierra Leone (Scott Elliot).
Abeokuta; Oloke-Meji; Niger; Katagum; and widely distributed in West Trop. Africa, extending to the Congo and Abyssinia.
Used as a chewstick (Abeokuta, Irving, Herb. Kew), as a toothstick, Katagum (Dalziel, Herb. Kew), as a bitter Sierra Leone (Kirk, Fl. Trop. Afr. l.c.), and described as possessing a medicinal bitter root, St. Thomas (Hiern, Cat. Welw. Afr. Pl. iii. p. 530). The leaves are soaked in water and used for soup, also used in palaver sauce, Sierra Leone (Scott Elliot, Col. Rep. Misc. No. 3, 1893, p. 42).
Found growing as a shrub 6–10 ft. high or small tree (Fl. Trop. Afr. l.c.), 6–8 ft., Katagum (Dalziel, Herb. Kew), a small tree or an arborescent shrub, in mountainous places at the outskirts of the forest at Monte Coffé, 1500–2000 ft. (Hiern, l.c.); cultivated at Freetown, Sierra Leone (Scott Elliot, Herb. Kew); often planted in hedges, Trop. Africa (Chevalier, Bull. Soc. Nat. d’Accl. de France, 1912, p. 110).