Plants shrubs or trees to 9 m tall, densely branched; young branches angular or ribbed, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves glabrous or scabrous; petioles 1-4(-9) mm long; blades 2-10 cm long, 1.5-6 cm wide, more or less broadly elliptic, tips with a hard mucro. Calyces about 1.5-2 mm long; corolla tubes 8-12.5 mm long, glabrous or pubescent outside; lobes 2.5-5 mm long, ovate-cuspidate; anthers 1-1.5 mm long, visible in the mouth of the tube. Berries 10-24 mm long, purple and edible when ripe. Seeds up to 13 mm long.
Acokanthera schimperi grows in regions N1-N3 of the Flora of Somalia, and in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania ,Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Yemen.
In Somaliland and Somalia, Acokanthera schimperi grows in evergreen bushlands and Juniperus forests at 800-1575 m.
Habit: Densely branched trees or shrubs up to 9 m tall, young branchlets angular and ribbed.
Leaves: Opposite, glabrous or scabrous, broadly ellipti, 2-10 cm long, 1,5-6 cm wide, tipped with a short, hard, spine.
Flowers: white tinged with red, tubes 8-12.5 mm long.
Fruits: Berries, 10-24 mm long, purple and edible when ripe; seeds to 13 mm long.
Habitat: Evergreen bushland and juniper forest.
A powerful poison for arrows can be made from the roots. Source: M. Thulin (2006) Flora of Somalia 3: 129.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.