Moraea stricta
Baker
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(c) Brendan Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Brendan Cole
(c) Brendan Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Brendan Cole
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(c) Courtney Hundermark, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Courtney Hundermark, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
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(c) Ryan van Huyssteen, some rights reserved (CC BY)
(c) Ryan van Huyssteen, some rights reserved (CC BY)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Corm, Root
The corms are eaten as a snack and cooked as a vegetable, particularly by children.
Known Hazards
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows in grassland and marshy places.
Africa, Australia, East Africa, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Countries: Angola, Australia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 15-25 cm high. The corms are 1-3 cm across. There is a single leaf. It is 1.5 mm wide and 60 cm long. The stem is branched with branches close to the stem. The flowers are pale lilac or blue with orange-yellow spots.
Other Information
The corms are eaten especially by children.
Notes
Caution: Some Moraea are very poisonous.
Names & Synonyms
Moraea parva N. E. Br.Moraea trita N. E. Br.
References (5)
- Guillarmod, J., 1971,
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 34
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 68
- Swaziland's Flora Database http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora
- Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179
