Thulin, M. (1999) Rutaceae in Flora of Somalia 2: 171-182
Plants shrubs or trees; bark smooth, grey; branchlets glabrous. Leaves usually alternate, rarely subopposite, sometimes simple, usually with 3 leaflets, glabrous; petioles 1.5-8 cm long, terete; leaflets lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5-18 cm long, 1.5-5.5 cm wide, bases cuneate, smooth-margined, tips usually acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse. Panicles often contracted and raceme-like. Petals yellowish, 2.5-4 mm long. Male flowers with 4(-5) stamens; pistillodes glabrous. Female flowers with 4 or 5 staminodes; ovaries aubglobose, glabrous. 6-11.5 mm long, 5-6 mm wide, glabrous, red.
Vepris nobilis grows in evergreen bushland and woodland at 1100-1600 m. It is known from regions N1-3 of the Flora of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Etiopia, Sudan, southward in eastern Africa to Zimbabwe and eastward into Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Thulin commened that the plants in Somaliland and Somalia are extreme in ther small leaflets (often only 5-6 cm long and 1.5-2 cm wide) and small flowers.
Vepris nobilis It is a versatile plant with multiple uses. It has edible fruits. Its poles are good for construction, utensil production such as spoons (fandhaal), spear shafts, clubs, walking sticks, bows and arrows and for charcoal production. Its roots and twigs are also used as toothbrushes. Its sticks are used for disinfecting and waterproofing fibre milk containers. It is reported to have efficacy against snakebite. Because of over-exploitation, it has become rare to find. Nectar from this tree makes honey bitter and not sticky. The plant has a good potential as an ornamental plant in urban areas. In times of shortage of grass, cattle herders used to defoliate its leaves and hand carry them for cows kept for milk. Cattle herders believed that it caused increased milk production.
