''Saba comorensis'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...

family. It is commonly called bungo fruit (pl. mabungo), mbungo, or rubber vine and is widespread across most of tropical Africa as well as in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and

Comoros The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni, ...

. The fruit looks similar to an orange with a hard orange peel but when opened it contains a dozen or so pips, which have the same texture as a mango seed. The fruit also makes a delicious juice drink which has been described as tasting "somewhere between a mango, an orange and a pineapple"., ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', retrieved 30 July 2009] "The highlight is a juice from the bungo fruit, indigenous to Zanzibar, which has a taste somewhere between a mango, an orange and a pineapple." The aromatic juice of the bungo fruit is also popular and highly appreciated on

Pemba Island Pemba Island (; ''al-Jazīra al-khadrāʔ''; ; ) is a Tanzanian island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean. Geography file:Map of Zanzibar Archipelago-en.svg, left, The main islands of the ...

and other parts of coastal Tanzania. In the Tanzanian Mahale Mountains National Park, ''S. comorensis'' is dispersed by

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

s.James V. Wakibara. Abundance and dispersion of some chimpanzee-dispersed fruiting plants at Mahale, Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology Vol. 43, Issue 2, pp. 107–113, May 2005. Article first published online: 27 MAY 2005. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2005.00553.x

References

External links

Rubber vine or Mabungo

World Agroforestry Centre

West African Plant Database

Georg Schweinfurth: Sammlung botanischer Zeichnungen im BGBM, Germany

Lost crops of Africa: Volume III: Fruits (2008). Gumvines (pp. 270-279)
Rauvolfioideae Tropical fruit Flora of Madagascar Flora of the Comoros Fruits originating in Africa Plants described in 1844 Taxa named by Marcel Pichon Taxa named by Wenceslas Bojer Taxa named by Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle {{Africa-stub