MyKrugerHoliday
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Marula
Maroela · Sclerocarya birrea
Marula is one of the signature trees of the southern and central bushveld, giving the classic 'marula-knobthorn savanna' its name. Its fruit is a magnet for wildlife and the base of the Amarula liqueur.
Log your Marula sighting — free →How to identify it
A rounded, spreading crown on a fairly straight trunk with mottled grey bark that flakes in disc-shaped pieces to show paler patches underneath. Compound leaves clustered at branch tips; in late summer look for the round yellow fruit littering the ground.
Flowers & fruit
Flowers in spring (roughly September–November); fruit ripens and drops from mid-January to March.
Browsed by
Elephants relish the fruit and will even push trees over to reach it; kudu, nyala, impala, zebra, warthog, baboons and monkeys eat the fallen fruit, and browsers take the leaves.
Where to see it in Kruger
Widespread through the granite-derived soils of the central and southern park (the marula-knobthorn savanna); common in mixed woodland but thins out in the far north.
Did you know
The 'drunk elephant' story is largely a myth: elephants prefer ripe fruit still on the tree, and an elephant would have to eat an impossible quantity of fermenting marulas to feel any effect.
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