It occurs in the miombo woodlands of Angola, the DRCongo, Zambia, southern Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, central and northern Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

[2] It is a dioecious species – the clusters of staminate (or male) and single pistillate (or female) flowers are borne on separate trees.

The fruit is roughly spherical drupe about 2–4 cm in diameter, green in colour ripening to yellow or brown.

When ripe, the 1.5mm hard shell encloses the yellow flesh which has an appealing sweet taste that has been likened to pear or plum.

Since 1996, work on propagating of superior seedlings has been carried out in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe by the Southern Africa Regional Programme.