Coconut palm
Photos: Claude Kolwelter (CC BY 4.0) · Christopher Mark (CC BY 4.0) · Maria Janeiro (CC BY 4.0) on iNaturalist.
Tropical coastal forests and savannas · Zone 13
East African Coast
The Swahili coast from Somalia to Mozambique: hot, humid, palm-fringed, with coral reefs offshore and the monsoon winds.
Coconut palms, mangroves, coastal forest, baobabs, coral islands and reefs, and dry savanna inland.
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Places in this region
Gardening
Planting follows the long and short rains: cassava, maize, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, okra, amaranth; coconuts, mangoes, cashews and citrus.
About gardening guides →Fishing
Reef and pelagic fishing: kingfish, giant trevally, snapper, sailfish and marlin offshore; mullet and milkfish in the creeks.
About fishing guides →Foraging
Baobab fruit, tamarind, wild mangoes and cashew apples, sea purslane and coconuts — and the beach at low tide.
About foraging guides →In season now · October
What you can pick right now
6 wild edibles typically ready in October in the East African Coast. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
FruitOctober – FebruaryBaobab (fruit and leaves)
Adansonia digitata
A vast, swollen grey trunk with smooth, folded bark and stubby branches that look like roots, bare of leaves for most of the dry season. The leaves are hand-shaped, with five to seven finger-like leaflets. The fruit is a velvety, egg- to sausage-shaped pod up to 25 cm (10 in) long on a long hanging stalk: a hard woody shell around chalky, off-white pulp and black kidney-shaped seeds.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Cliff Tyllick · CC BY 4.0
Has a dangerous look-alikeGreenMay – OctoberAmaranth greens (morogo, mchicha)
Amaranthus spp.
Upright or sprawling herbs, often with reddish stems, carrying alternate, oval to diamond-shaped, smooth-edged leaves on long stalks, and dense, bristly spikes of tiny green or reddish flowers at the top and in the leaf joints. No milky sap, no berries, no trumpet flowers. Spiny amaranth has a pair of sharp spines at each leaf base.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Kevin Faccenda · CC BY 4.0
Has a dangerous look-alikeMushroomMay – OctoberTermite mushrooms (omajowa)
Termitomyces spp.
It grows out of a termite mound or the ground over a termite nest, never from wood. The cap usually has a pointed nipple at its centre, and the stem tapers into a long, tough root (pseudorhiza) that runs down — sometimes a metre or more — to the termites' fungus garden. Sizes run from a few centimetres (Termitomyces microcarpus, in crowds) to frying-pan caps of 15–40 cm (T. schimperi) and, in T. titanicus, up to a metre across.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: madhavan a.p · CC BY 4.0
FruitJanuary – DecemberSycamore fig
Ficus sycomorus
A big, spreading tree with yellowish to orange bark that peels in papery strips, and rough, heart-shaped leaves with prominent yellow veins beneath. The figs, 2–3 cm (about 1 in) across, grow in thick clusters on short leafless branchlets from the trunk and main branches and ripen from greenish-buff to yellow or reddish. Broken twigs bleed milky latex.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Alan Manson · CC BY 4.0
GreenApril – OctoberBroadleaf plantain
Plantago major
A flat rosette of broad oval leaves with five or more deep parallel veins running end to end, and a narrow greenish flower spike. Tear a leaf slowly and the veins pull out as tough strings.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: lemonsnapp · CC BY 4.0
GreenOctober – MayChickweed
Stellaria media
Sprawling mats with small opposite oval leaves and a single line of fine hairs running up one side of the stem, switching sides at each leaf pair. Stretch the stem: an elastic inner core.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. They show a typical specimen, not every variation — never identify from a photo alone. Confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager before you eat anything wild.
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active in the East African Coast in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishYear-roundGiant trevally (GT)
Caranx ignobilis
A thick, powerful jack with a steep, blunt head, hard scutes along the base of the tail, and silver-grey to black colouring; mature males can be almost black.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Christopher Mark · CC BY 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out in the East African Coast in October. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMar–OctHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctLady beetle
Coccinellidae
The adult everyone knows; the larva is the useful one — a spiky, alligator-shaped grey-and-orange creature that looks like a pest.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctGround beetle
Carabidae
Shiny black or bronze, fast-running, with grooved wing covers and long legs.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Gavin Slater · CC BY 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
The weekly note for the East African Coast
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Why East African Coast looks the way it does
Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place. The dial starts on the kind of land closest to this region — turn it warmer, colder, wetter or drier and see what would grow instead.
Temperate rainforest
Like coastal British Columbia
Mild and very wet: rain nearly all year — giant cedar trees, soft moss on everything, banana slugs and black bears.
Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place. They decide which plants can grow, and the plants decide which animals can live there.
Say it like this
- Age 2“Brrr, cold! Now make it hot. Now make it rain!”
- Age 4“Cold and dry makes tundra. Can you make a desert? Who lives there?”
- Age 6“Why can't a cactus grow in the rainforest, or a moose live in the desert? Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place.”
Go outside: Put a cup outside to catch the rain this week, and look at the thermometer each morning. Is your place warm or cool, wet or dry?
For Kids · The land and the sky