Sideroxylon lycioides

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit pulp is edible, though bitter.

Where to Find It

It grows along sandy creek banks and in drier forests. It grows up to 300 m altitude in the southern USA. It suits hardiness zones 6-10.

North America, USA,

How to Identify

An evergreen shrub. It is shiny. It grows 6 m high. The crown is spreading and open. The trunk is 15 cm across. The bark is reddish brown and thin and smooth. The leaves are alternate or clustered on short side twigs. The leaves are pointed and 5-12 cm long by 1.2-3 cm wide. They do not have hairs. The leaves are sword shaped and widest beyond the middle. They taper to the base. They are shiny green above and paler underneath. The flowers are white and in clusters. They are 3 mm wide. They are bell shaped. The fruit are purple-black berries. They are 12 mm long. There is one large seed. The fruit pulp is edible but bitter.

Sideroxylon lycioides, the buckthorn bully, is a small tree in the family Sapotaceae. It is widely distributed in the southeastern United States from Texas to southeast Virginia. The fruit pulp is thin but edible and consumed by birds. Livestock browse the plant's foliage.

Notes

There are about 25 Bumelia species. The Bumelia may be merged with the Sideroxylon.

More from Sapotaceae

Argania spinosa

Argan, Morocco iron-wood

Autranella congolensis

Ntiore, Uku

Baillonella toxisperma

False shea butternut, African pearwood

Beccariella brownlessiana

Northern Coondoo

Beccariella macrocarpa

Big-leaf Planchonella, Big-leaf Coondoo, Pink boxwood

Beccariella papyracea

Pink Boxwood