Brachystelma dinteri
Schltr.
Odumtsana
Raul Rancel Salazar
Raul Rancel Salazar
Raul Rancel Salazar
What to Eat
Edible parts: Root, Tubers
Root - raw or cooked. The skin is bitter and is usually removed before the tuber is eaten. The tuber can be 4 - 10cm in diameter.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant that grows in hot and arid places. It grows in places with a marked dry season. In southern Africa it grows between 1,200-1,700 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, Botswana, East Africa, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa, Zimbabwe,
How to Identify
A herb. It has underground stems or rhizomes. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 50 cm high. It has a tuber 3-5 cm across. The leaves are narrowly oval. They are hairy on both surfaces. The flowers are in groups. They are dark red or spotted. They have a bad smell. The tuber is 4-10 cm across. The fruit are cylinder shaped.
How to Grow
A plant of semi-arid areas in the tropics and subtropics, where it can be found at elevations from 1,200 - 1,700 metres. Requires a sunny position. Prefers a moist but well-drained soil.
Notes
Also put in the family Asclepiadaceae.
Names & Synonyms
References (7)
- Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 107
- Maguire, 1978,
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 62
- Plowes, N. J. & Taylor, F. W., 1997, The Processing of Indigenous Fruits and other Wildfoods of Southern Africa. in Smartt, L. & Haq. (Eds) Domestication, Production and Utilization of New Crops. ICUC p 186
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Published on the Internet; http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ceb/sepasal/internet [Accessed 28th March 2011]
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 22
- 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
