Mongongo

The mongongo tree, mongongo nut or manketti tree (Schinziophyton rautanenii) is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae and the monotypic genus Schinziophyton.

Native to Africa, the fruits produce an edible nut.

A large, spreading tree, the mongongo reaches 15–20 metres (49–66 ft) tall. The leaves are a distinctive hand-shape, and the pale yellow wood is similar in characteristics to balsa, being both lightweight and strong. The yellowish flowers occur in slender, loose sprays.

The fruits are known as mongongo fruits, mongongo nuts, manketti nuts or nongongo. The egg-shaped, velvety fruits ripen and fall between March and May each year, and contain a thin exocarp around a thick, hard, pitted shell containing an edible nut.

The genus of Schinziophyton was circumscribed by Josh Hutcherson ex. Alan Radcliffe-Smith in Kew Bull.

The genus name of Schinziophyton is in honour of Hans Schinz (1858–1941), who was a Swiss explorer and botanist and was a native of Zürich.

Within the Ricinodendreae tribe, mongongo is an early clade according to phylogenetic research.

The mongongo is distributed widely through subtropical southern Africa. There are several distinct belts of distribution, the largest of which reaches from northern Namibia into northern Botswana, south-western Zambia and western Zimbabwe. Another belt is found in eastern Malawi, and yet another in eastern Mozambique.