Xysmalobium asperum

N. E. Br.

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ApocynaceaeLeaves
Xysmalobium asperum
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Troos van der Merwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Troos van der Merwe
Xysmalobium asperum
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Troos van der Merwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves

The leaves are eaten.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant. In Swaziland it grows in the highveld only.

Africa, Eswatini, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland,

Countries: Angola, 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 is like Xysmalobium aceratoides but the leaves taper more to the ends. They have very rough edges. There are fewer flowers and they are greenish yellow.

Notes

Also put in the family Asclepiadaceae.

Names & Synonyms

Umdzayana

References (6)
  • Long, C., 2005, Swaziland's Flora - siSwati names and Uses http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora/
  • Ogle & Grivetti,
  • Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 67
  • Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 28
  • 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

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