Cordeauxia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Cordeauxia edulis
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Subfamily:	Caesalpinioideae
Tribe:	Caesalpinieae
Genus:	Cordeauxia Hemsley
Species:	C. edulis
Binomial name
Cordeauxia edulis Hemsley

The Cordeauxia edulis is a special plant in the pea family, Fabaceae. It's the only type of plant in its group, called Cordeauxia. People often call it the yeheb bush.

This plant is super important for people living in the Horn of Africa. It helps nomads (people who move around) survive by giving them seeds to eat. The yeheb bush also provides food for animals, wood for fires, and even a natural dye.

Sadly, there are fewer and fewer yeheb bushes growing wild today. Scientists think it could be very useful in other hot, dry places. So, it's important to protect this plant from disappearing.

About the Yeheb Bush

The Cordeauxia edulis is a plant from the pea family (Fabaceae). It belongs to a group of plants called Cordeauxia. This group is related to other plants like Caesalpinia and Stuhlmannia.

There are at least two main types of C. edulis: Moqley and Suley.

• Moqley has smaller, darker leaves and a thinner stem. Its pods usually have just one seed.
• Suley has larger seeds, and its pods contain several smaller seeds.

People say Moqley seeds taste sweeter.

The yeheb bush has many names! In English, it's called Yeheb-Nut. In French, it's Yeheb. Other names include Yebb, Hebb, Ye’eh, Yi-ib, Yehib, or Yicib. In the Amharic language, it's called Ehb, Qud, or Quda.

History of the Yeheb Bush

The Somali nomads have known about the yeheb bush for hundreds of years. The first time someone from outside the region wrote about it was in 1871. An Italian explorer, Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, saw the plant while traveling through Somalia.

Later, a botanist named Cordeaux found plant samples in the Ogaden province of Ethiopia. These samples were a new type of plant in the pea family. Because of Cordeaux's discovery, the plant was named Cordeauxia. The second part of its name, edulis, means "edible" (can be eaten).

In 1929, the yeheb bush covered half of the land in large parts of Somalia and southeast Ethiopia. But by 1983, it had shrunk to only small areas.

Where the Yeheb Bush Grows

The yeheb tree naturally grows in dry and semi-dry areas of central Somalia and the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. Its numbers have dropped very quickly. It used to cover 50% of the land, but now it's found in only a few small spots.

These areas are often like semi-deserts or open grasslands with bushes. They are usually 100 to 300 meters above sea level. It rains very little there, and it never freezes. The soil is poor, red, and sandy.

The yeheb bush is in danger because of wars, too much harvesting, and droughts. Another problem is that local people collect the seeds, and wild animals and insects eat or destroy them. If the yeheb bush disappears, it would be a huge loss for the nomadic people who rely on it.

In 1975, Somalia's National Range Agency protected about 50 hectares of land. They stopped animals from grazing there. Since then, many other areas have been protected. A study in 1983 showed that the yeheb bush was doing much better in these protected places. However, a visit in 2015 found that the plant had vanished from one area in Somaliland, but it was still growing on the Ethiopian side of the border.

The yeheb bush has also been planted in other countries like Israel, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, and Yemen. It's a wild plant, but people have tried to grow it on farms. It hasn't done well in most new places, except for Voi, Kenya. There, it has successfully produced fruits since 1957. Today, seeds and plant parts are stored in special collections in Ethiopia, Kenya, and the USA to help protect the species.

How the Yeheb Bush Lives

The yeheb tree is an evergreen shrub (a woody plant smaller than a tree) that can grow up to 4 meters tall. It usually has many stems and is about 1.6 meters high. The yeheb tree has a deep main root, called a taproot, which can go down 3 meters. This helps it reach water deep underground, so it can stay green all year.

• Leaves: The bottom of the leaves is green and has tiny hairs that contain a special red color. The top of the leaves is olive green. The leaves grow one after another and feel like leather. They are oval-shaped and usually have 4 pairs of smaller leaflets. Each leaf is about 3–5 cm long. When the soil gets dry, the leaves curl up to save water.
• Flowers: The flowers are yellow and have both male and female parts. They are 2–5 cm wide and have 5 petals. They grow in small groups at the end of the branches. The yeheb bush flowers all year, but it blooms more during the rainy season. Insects help pollinate the flowers. The flowers start to form fruits, then pause during the dry season. They finish growing quickly when the next rainy season begins.
• Seeds: The seeds are about the size of a large hazelnut, weighing 1–3 grams. They are reddish-brown. The pods (which don't open by themselves) hold 1–4 round or oval seeds. People sometimes mistakenly call them nuts. About 80% of the seeds can grow into new plants.
• Trunk and Bark: The trunk and bark are yellowish-brown.
• Growth: The plant grows slowly at first. This is because it spends a lot of energy growing its deep taproot.
• Chromosome number: The yeheb bush has 24 chromosomes (2n=24).
• Flower arrangement: The flowers grow in a cluster called a raceme at the end of the stem.

Growing the Yeheb Bush

People grow C. edulis on a small scale in Somalia and near Voi in Kenya. It's only recently that people have started trying to farm it. So, we don't know much about the best ways to plant it, care for it, or choose the best types for growing. This plant has a lot of promise, especially for other hot, dry areas, as a source of food and animal feed.

What the Plant Needs

The C. edulis plant can handle dry weather and desert conditions very well. For it to grow best, it needs an average temperature of 25 °C and 250-400 mm of rain per year (with two rainy seasons). The yeheb tree can even survive with as little as 150–200 mm of rain per year. It grows in red sandy soils (called Haud) that don't have much nitrogen. The soils are alkaline (not acidic) and can be fine sand or coarse sand. C. edulis likes to grow on higher ground where water doesn't collect. It grows at heights between 100 and 1000 meters. You can find it growing with acacia and commiphora bushes.

Planting Seeds

People often say yeheb seeds can only grow for a few months. But if you coat the seeds in wood ash and keep them in a sack, they can stay good for at least a year. The seeds should be planted in soil where the deep taproot can grow easily. We don't have much information on how far apart to plant them. In nature, you might find up to 320 plants in one hectare.

Young plants need plenty of water after they are planted. Moving the plant can damage its taproot and cause it to die. C. edulis grows slowly at first because it's busy building its strong taproot. Once the plants are settled, they need very little care. The plant can reseed itself, but it's hard to get good seeds for planting. This is because insects like weevils and larvae often infest the seeds. Also, people roast the seeds after harvest, which can damage them. The farm near Voi, Kenya, is currently the only place that provides seeds for planting.

Harvesting Yeheb Seeds

Yeheb seeds are usually collected from wild plants. The best time to harvest is in June. But in Somalia today, people sometimes harvest twice a year. This can happen if both rainy seasons bring enough rain for the plant.

Children and women usually pick the yeheb seeds by hand, and it's hard work. Because there's a high demand for the seeds and many droughts lately, the bushes are often harvested too early, sometimes when they are less than 3 years old. People often take all the seeds at once, which can harm the plant.

How Much Yeheb Grows

The yeheb bush produces few fruits in its first three years. But it can live for many years. The older the plant, the more seeds it produces. The amount of rain also affects how much it yields. A plant can produce about 5–8 kg of seeds. The amount of animal feed it provides is about 325–450 kg per hectare.

After Harvest and Storage

Somali children rarely eat the seeds fresh. Most of the time, the seeds are dried in the shade for 7–10 days. Then, the hard outer shell is removed. To store the seeds, they must be roasted or boiled. This stops mold from growing and kills any insect eggs or larvae inside. It also hardens the seed coat.

After roasting in hot ash (which can damage some seeds), the seeds are coated in weed ash. Then, they are stored in sacks in the house for personal use or to sell later at local markets. Seeds treated this way can be stored for about one year. Nomads sometimes keep the seeds in containers made of dried camel leather. In these, the seeds can be stored for many years.

The wood used for roasting the seeds often comes from the yeheb bush itself. This makes it even harder for new plants to grow, especially when all the seeds are taken.

How People Use the Yeheb Bush

Local people usually eat the seeds themselves. They are rarely sold in towns. There are more people who want the seeds than there are seeds available, because the plant population is shrinking.

For People

• Food: People eat the seeds dried, boiled, roasted, or raw. During droughts, the seeds of C. edulis are sometimes the only food available for Somali nomads. The seeds are healthy and taste sweet like a chestnut after roasting. Fresh or dried seeds taste a bit sour. Local people love the taste! There's even a saying: "Fadhi iyo Fuud Yicibeed lays la waa" which means: "Those who remain seated and lazy will not get Yihib." Raw seeds have things that can make you feel sick. But cooking or roasting them destroys these things.
• Drinks: People make tea from the leaves. They also drink the sweet water left over after boiling the seeds.
• Medicine: C. edulis can help control stomach juices. One study showed that eating the plant helps the body make more red blood cells. So, it's used as a natural remedy for anemia (when you don't have enough red blood cells).

For Animals

C. edulis is an important plant for bees. It also provides food for camels, goats, sheep, and cattle during the dry season. However, the bushes can't handle being grazed for too long. It's very important for raising animals, especially in central Somalia and eastern Ethiopia. There, C. edulis can provide 85% of good-quality feed during the dry season. During the rainy season, animals usually avoid the plant because its leaves have a lot of tannins (substances that can taste bitter).

The leaves of C. edulis also contain a special red dye called cordeauxione. It's found in tiny glands on the leaves and is only found in C. edulis. If goats eat the leaves, their feet turn light orange, and their urine turns purple. Cordeauxione also makes calcium stick to it. So, if animals eat the leaves, their teeth turn orange-red, and their bones turn pink. In Somalia and Saudi Arabia, pink bones are a sign of good meat quality.

Other Uses

• Fuel: The wood from the yeheb bush burns well, even when it's wet.
• Insect defense: Roasting or boiling fresh seeds helps keep insects away.
• Industry: The red dye from the leaves can be used to color fabrics.
• Soap: Soap can be made from the oil in the seeds.
• Building material: The wood is good for building because termites don't like it.
• Livestock fences: The bushes can be used to make fences for animals.
• Soil health: The plant helps put nitrogen into the soil and stops soil from washing away.

Selling Yeheb Seeds

There is some trade of yeheb seeds between Ethiopia, Somalia, and Arab countries. But we don't know exactly how much is traded. Many studies suggest that yeheb seeds could be sold in Europe as a "dessert nut."

Pests and Diseases

• Seeds: Weevils and moth larvae can damage the seeds.
• Bushes: The bushes themselves rarely get insect pests.

What's in Yeheb Seeds?

The seeds are full of good things like starch, sugar, protein, and fat. The Suley type of seed has more protein and fat than the Moqley type.

Even though their carbohydrate and protein levels are lower than other beans grown in the Horn of Africa, C. edulis can grow where other beans cannot. The protein in C. edulis is similar to other pea-family plants, but it might be missing some important amino acids like methionine.

Yeheb seeds have a lot of sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. They have smaller amounts of calcium and magnesium.

Both types of seeds have many amino acids. Yeheb seeds are rich in important amino acids like lysine and arginine. However, they don't have enough tryptophan and isoleucine. A harmful substance called phytohaemagglutinin, often found in other beans, is not in yeheb seeds. This makes them even better for eating!

Images for kids

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  A close-up of the yeheb bush.

See also

In Spanish: Cordeauxia edulis para niños