The canopy is flattish and irregular and the tree is heavily branched.Produces small greenish-white flowers in dense heads at the ends of branches (Sep-Feb/Spring - summer).The fruit tend to appear only after good rains.The smooth, hard fruit are large and green, ripening to yellow.They take a long time to ripen.Inside are tightly packed seeds surrounded by a fleshy, edible covering.Woodland, bush savannah and sometimes in galleried forest at elevations up to 2,200 metres.Found in a wide variety of dry woodland, thickets and savannah woodland, frequently on sandy loams of river banks, at elevations from 400 - 2,200 metres.

A mixture of the ground up roots and oil is applied to the skin as a fly repellent Sound boxes for musical instruments known as 'mbira' are sometimes made from the shells of dried fruit.The fruits are also carved and sold as curios The yellowish-white wood is straight-grained, hard and planes well.It is used in furniture making and general carpentry.Timber from this tree is also used to produce implement handles, fighting sticks and hut poles, and is used for carving.The wood provides firewood and charcoa Strychnos spinosa fruit plants in Keralais now available in our farms.