Chocolate Berry

payos: uncertain. It has been suggested that it refers to the Payosi River, a small tributary of the Zambesi, where the type may have been collected.

Shrub or small tree. Bark distinctive, grey-brown, deeply fissured vertically (photo left). Leaves opposite, digitately compound, densely covered with hairs, bright green above, pale yellowish below. Flowers in small axillary heads, white with a deep mauve centre and lower lip. Fruit fleshy, shiny black, ovoid to subspherical, cupped in the persistent calyx.

Common

East Africa southwards to Zimbabwe and Mozambique