A shrub to 3 m high by streams and in open places of forest zone of N and S Nigeria and W Cameroons, and widespread across tropical Africa.The stems are woven into baskets and fish-traps in Tanganyika (6) and Ubangi (10). Leaves and roots of Nigerian material have been found to show slight molluscicidal activity against the fresh-water snail, Bulinus globulus (11). The leaves are covered by soft sticky hairs and the bracts similarly covered together forming a cup perhaps act as insect-traps (2). The foliage is browsed by elephants in Kenya (5) and by stock in Tanganyika where the plant is thought to be non-toxic (9). It does, however, have medicinal applications in Central Africa. The cooked leaf is taken to relieve post-partum pains, and a root- decoction as a laxative (9). The powdered leaf together with the powdered flower-stem of Psorospermum febrifugum Spach, var. ferrugineum Keay & Milne-Redhead (Guttiferae) is used in Tanganyika as a healing application to circumcision wounds (3). Water in which leaves have been soaked is also used in Tanganyika to wash scabies on children (7), the root for leprosy (9), and the plant (part unspecified) in a medicine for infections of the umbilicus of newborn babies (8). In Ubangi a leaf-decoction is used in a hip-bath for piles, and a root-decoction is also drunk (10). The leaves in S Nigeria are compounded with the leaves of other drug-plants into a draught for children with rabies (1). This is perhaps an extension of a widespread belief found in Tanganyika of magical powers residing in the plant’s roots (4, 9).Plant-ash rubbed onto the chest for pain is an Ubangi treatment (10).