The tuber is under its Oromo name anchote a well-known local crop, but also the leaves are eaten.

Upper lamina glabrous with clear to whitish pustules, sometimes with white hairs.

Coccinia abyssinica tubers are an important staple crop in the Ethiopian highlands.

Also the young shoots and the leaves are cooked and eaten around Dembi Dolo, Oromia State.

The relatively high content of calcium might be the reason for the local belief that eating C. abyssinica helps against fractured bones.

Coccinia abyssinica is distributed in the more humid highlands, while C. megarrhiza occurs in the dry lowlands.

[2] Both species belong to the C. rehmannii-clade that shares the character of usually producing a dark green halo around the white spots on ripening fruits.