Monopsis decipiens
(Sond.) Thulin
Butterfly lobelia
FabaceaeLeaves
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(c) tjeerd, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by tjeerd
(c) tjeerd, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by tjeerd
iNaturalist · cc-by
(c) Karen Eichholz, some rights reserved (CC BY)
(c) Karen Eichholz, some rights reserved (CC BY)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves
The leaves are eaten as a vegetable.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows in grassland and often in seasonally wet places. In Zimbabwe it grows between 1,400-1,800 m above sea level. It often grows in spring after an area has been burnt.
Africa, Botswana, East Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe,
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 can grow for one or several years. It can be erect or lie along the ground. The stems are 5-45 cm long. The leaves are alternate and close together. They are 8-15 mm long by 1-2 mm wide.
Names & Synonyms
Lobelia decipiens Sond.
References (4)
- Guillarmod, J., 1981,
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 141
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 73
- 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
