The Bird Snatcher… Kumukhuyu Nandere (ficus capensis)

Derivation of the name: Nandere ( Khukhera ) - to attract, to bring, to invite. This is a tree that attracts birds, insects and animals for its soft sweet fruits. Sikhuya - skin disease, psoriaris. The name refers to the scales that the bark develops in old trees.

Natural habitat and distribution in bungoma: Habitat: riverine forest, groundwater forest, riverine bush. Distribution: common along river banks and in valleys or plains with high water table. Found in cultivated land, less common than Kumukhuyu ( Ficus sycomorus ).

Description: Bark brownish-grey, light coloured,  smooth, scaling with age. Leaves reddish when young, margin usually repand-dentate, sometimes entire, surface usually glabrous, sometimes pubescent beneath. Fruit a fig, orange to red when mature, up to 3 cm in diameter, usually tomentose, edible, growing on special leafless branches on older wood and on the main trunk.

Physical Features: Shape: large tree up to 25 m high ( usually less ), sturdy branches. Crown: hemispherical. Foliage: Dense, deciduous.

Biological Features: Mulch: the mulch is appreciated ( compare with kumukhuyu ). Tree/crop Association: shade tree in banana and less often in coffee plantations, often left in cropland. Biomass Production: Fairly fast growing. Other characteristics: not as drought resistant as kumukhuyu. Reproduction: seeds.

Management: lopping, pollarding, coppicing.

Ecological benefits: soil conservation, windbreak, riverbank protection.

Tree products and use: timber, fibre, fodder, shade, ornamental,fruit, mortar, fuelwood, traditional stool.

Medicinal applications: Bark/Root: diarrhoea, STD, Mixed with other herbal drugs it is used to treat men’s primary impotence.

Cultural Features:

Saying: Kumukhuyu kwasinya enjusi

Kumukhuyu made a fox fed up withers fruits.