Ximenia afraSond.

large sourplum

WFO wfo-0000428236 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ximenia afra, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. a Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-29 / obs. 202378622
Ximenia afra, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. b Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162929353
Ximenia afra, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. c Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115448526
Ximenia afra, photographed by James Deacon
fig. d James Deacon, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 115896559
Ximenia afra, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 63947283
Ximenia afra, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 59247477
Ximenia afra, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. g Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58754546
Ximenia afra, photographed by Andrew Deacon
fig. h Andrew Deacon, CC0 1.0 / obs. 58857202

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Ximenia afra is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Caprivi Strip, Comoros, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBotswanaBurundiCaprivi StripEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe Comoros
Native distribution of Ximenia afra, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Caprivi Strip CPV
Comoros COM
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 10 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ximenia afra var. glabra Cavaco & Keraudren
  • Ximenia afra var. longipedicellata Cavaco & Keraudren
  • Ximenia americana var. caffra (Sond.) Engl.
  • Ximenia americana var. tomentosa Engl.
  • Ximenia caffra Sond.
  • Ximenia caffra var. caffra
  • Ximenia caffra var. glabra Cavaco & Keraudren
  • Ximenia caffra var. longipedicellata Cavaco & Keraudren
  • Ximenia caffra var. natalensis Sond.
  • Ximenia madagascariensis Cavaco & Keraudren

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.