PlantsMap

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8 plants worth knowing

Mozambique

Mozambique has more than 2,400 km of Indian Ocean coastline with coconut groves, dunes and the largest mangrove forests in East Africa. Inland, miombo woodland predominates, dry mopane woodland covers the Zambezi Valley and Tete Province, and in Gorongosa National Park green floodplains are ringed by forests of fever trees and palms.

Hover over a plant to see on the map where it grows.

where it grows

  1. Coconut palm 1

    palm

    Coconut palm

    Cocos nucifera

    Inhambane is the “land of coconut palms” – millions of them line the beaches, and their nuts give the milk that goes into every dish.
  2. Cashew 2

    crop

    Cashew

    Anacardium occidentale

    In the 1970s Mozambique was the world’s largest producer of cashew nuts – today caju still shapes the landscape of the north.
  3. Loop-root mangrove 3

    tree

    Loop-root mangrove

    Rhizophora mucronata

    The mangroves of the Zambezi Delta are the largest mangrove forest in East Africa – trees standing in salt water on a tangle of stilt roots.
  4. Pod mahogany 4

    tree

    Pod mahogany

    Afzelia quanzensis

    Chanfuta yields one of Mozambique’s most valuable timbers, and its black-and-red seeds are used as beads and amulets.
  5. Fever tree 5

    tree

    Fever tree

    Vachellia xanthophloea

    The yellow-green trunks of fever trees form one of Africa’s most extraordinary forests on the edge of the Gorongosa plains.
  6. African baobab 6

    tree

    African baobab

    Adansonia digitata

    Mighty embondeiros tower over Mozambique’s savannas – for centuries their fruit, leaves and bark have given people food, medicine and materials.
  7. Cassava 7

    crop

    Cassava

    Manihot esculenta

    Cassava is one of Mozambique’s key food plants – the roots give flour and porridge, the leaves the famous matapa with peanuts and coconut milk.
  8. African blackwood 8

    tree

    African blackwood

    Dalbergia melanoxylon

    Makonde carvers turn the extremely hard black wood of pau-preto into famous sculptures, and instrument makers worldwide into clarinets and oboes.