Vitex is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. It has about 250 species. Vitex is a genus of shrubs and trees, from 1 to 35m tall. Some species have whitish bark that is characteristically furrowed. Leaves are opposite, usually compound. The fruit is a drupe.

Vitex ferruginea, commonly known as Plum Fingerleaf, is a South African indigenous edible fruit tree. It is an understorey forest tree from the KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces as well as West Africa to Zaire and Angola and in the coastal strip of Kenya and Tanzania. It is found in forests, beside rivers and lakes, often in shallow soils. In Uganda, it occurs in thickets and at forest edges, e.g. Kibale Forest. Firewood, charcoal, poles, food (fruit), shade. A shrub to 4 m or a tree to 13 m, trunk slightly fluted, often deciduous and flowering with young leaf growth; branchlets with yellow-rusty brown hairs which are found on many other parts of the plant.