English: Violet tree.
Dutch: Krinkhout.
Bambara: Satene.
Tswana: Mmaba.
Venda: Mpesu.
Clades: Polygalaceae.
Region: Africa, Senegal to Eritrea and Ethiopia, South Africa.
Habitat: subtropics and tropics; woodland, arid savannah soils; from semi-arid scrub to dense forest, woodland and bush habitats, gallery forests; avoiding the moistest regions; elevations up to 1,600 metres; hot and arid summer rainfall, equatorial humid; annual daytime temperatures are within the range 20 - 30°c; mean annual rainfall in the range 600 - 1,000mm; sunny position; light, well-drained soil; survives bush fires.
Content: toxic, lethal if taken in excess; saponin, damaging to bone marrow and haemolysis; 0.42% methyl salicylate; triterpenoid saponins, securinine; ergot alkaloids.
Culture: threatened due to overexploitation.
Use: roots as a medicine; young leaves, cooked as a vegetable, in sauces; source of materials; ornamental, beautiful flowering tree, as a hedge; bark of the roots, or the pounded seeds, can be used as a soap for washing and bleaching items; bark fibre is strong and durable as cotton or flax, for fishing nets, baskets, strong threads for bark cloth; seed oil for cosmetics or furniture stain; roots at 350 ppm are 100% effective as a molluscicide; wood for poles, hut construction, brooms; wood for fuel, charcoal; bark, roots and seeds for arrow poison; roots for snake repellent, fish poison; Use: abortion; suicide; ordeal poison, hunting and fishing poison.

BotanySpiny, semideciduous shrub or small tree; much-branched, open, rather straggly looking crown; 4 - 12 metres tall.
Stem: flattened or slightly fluted; wood is light yellow, with markedly dark growth rings, soft, spongy, durable, resisting termites, liable to split upon drying.
Roots: smell like wintergreen oil.
Pollination: by birds, butterflies, insects