Vangueria infausta Burch.

Shrub or small tree 1.5-8 m tall, very similar to previous species save for the indumentum; trunk smooth, grey or eventually rough and ridged; branches often robust, ridged, pale or dark, the young parts densely ferruginous, pubescent or velvety. Leaf blades 4-30 x 2.5-18 cm, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, ovate or sometimes almost round or lanceolate, rounded, subacute or ± acute to shortly acuminate at the apex, rounded to cuneate or rarely ± subcordate at the base, often discolorous, densely pubescent to usually densely softly velvety on both surfaces; the hairs often yellowish or ferruginous in dry state; lateral nerves in 6-8 main pairs; petiole 3-10 mm long, similarly hairy; stipules with base 2-4 mm long and apical part 3-20 mm long, hairy. Inflorescences densely hairy, sometimes extensive and much branched but typically rather short; branches 1.5-3.5 cm long, each 5-10-flowered; peduncles 6-8 mm long; pedicels 1-2.5 mm long, but those of the central flower of each dichasial element c. 3.5 mm long. Calyx tube 0.75-1.2 mm long; lobes obtusely triangular to narrowly oblong, 1-1.25(2-2.5) mm long. Corolla rounded or apiculate in bud; green or yellow-green, typically densely spreading hairy outside but glabrous in some variants; tube 3-4.5 mm long; lobes 3-4 mm long with appendages up to 0.5 mm long, or practically obsolete. Style 4.5-6 mm long; pollen presenter yellow, 1 mm long. Fruit green, usually ripening to dull orange-brown or purplish, 1.5-4.7 cm in diameter, depressed subglobose. Pyrenes up to 13-20 x 6-13 x 5-8 mm.

A tropical plant. It grows in the lowlands and the highlands. It grows on stony and sandy ground. It grows in shady places. It can tolerate frost. It can tolerate drought. It grows between 10-3,333 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.

The ripe fruit are eaten raw. The fruit can be used to make a sauce or a pudding. When sugar is added, the fruit looks and tastes like apple sauce. The fruit can be dried and stored. It is later soaked and cooked. The seeds are cracked and the kernels extracted and eaten. They are roasted. They are also used as flavouring. The leaves are cooked as a green vegetable.

Plants can be grown from seeds. The fruit are allowed to dry and then soaked in water before planting. Using fertiliser, manure or early irrigation reduces the survival and earl growth of young plants. They are adapted to low fertility and seasonal rainfall.