Strychnos icaja is a species belonging to the plant family Loganiaceae, native to West Tropical Africa. It is a very large, tropical rainforest liana which may attain a length of .
Taxonomy
The species was published in the journal Adansonia by Henri Ernest Baillon in the year 1879.
Common names
Vernacular names in the various languages of Ubangi include mbondo in the Bantu language Lissongo, kpwili in Mbwaka and mbondo ou boundou in various other Bantu languages spoken in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Description
A very large and stout liana, the trunk 10-15 cm in diameter snaking over the ground for some distance before climbing into the trees to a height of 30-40 m and then cascading in festoons, attached to their supporting trees by short tendrils resembling fish hooks. Bark of the branches greyish in colour, that of the subterranean roots mahogany-pink. Twigs of the flowering branches slender, glabrous, often bifurcated.[Translated from the original French] Large liana up to 100 m long, climbing with solitary tendrils; stem up to 15 cm in diameter; branchlets bearing solitary tendrils, dark green, glabrous. Leaves opposite, simple and entire; stipules absent; petiole 4–12 mm long, glabrous; blade ovate to elliptical, 5–15(–21) cm × 2–7(–10) cm, base cuneate to rounded, apex acuminate, glabrous, 3-veined from the base. Inflorescence a slender, rather open, lax, axillary thyrse 3–7 cm long, few-flowered to paniculate. Flowers minute, foetid, bisexual, regular, 4-merous; sepals fused at base, broadly ovate to almost orbicular, up to 1 mm long; corolla tube up to 1.5 mm long, lobes oblong to ovate or triangular, 1.5–2 mm long, acute, spreading, glabrous or hairy inside at base, greenish yellow or yellowish white; stamens inserted at the mouth of the corolla tube, exserted; ovary superior, globose, c. 0.5 mm in diameter, glabrous, 2-celled, style 0.5–1 mm long, stigma small, head-shaped. Fruit an ellipsoid or globose berry c. 2.5 cm × 3 cm, soft, dark yellow when ripe, 1-seeded. Seed ellipsoid, 16–21 mm × 15–20 mm × 9–15 mm, woolly hairy.
