Tridentea marientalensis
(Nel) Leach
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Nick Helme, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Nick Helme
(c) Nick Helme, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Nick Helme
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit, Leaves
The fruit is eaten raw or cooked, and the leaves are also edible.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant. It grows in dry soils. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa,
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 succulent herb. The stems are unevenly 4 angled. They are dull greyish green. The flowers are brown and yellow. The flowers are produced on special outcrops in the angles of the stems.
Other Information
It is a famine food.
Notes
Also put in the family Asclepiadaceae.
Names & Synonyms
Stapelia marientalensis Nel
References (7)
- Grivetti, L. E., 1980, Agricultural development: present and potential role of edible wild plants. Part 2: Sub-Saharan Africa, Report to the Department of State Agency for International Development. p 75
- Keith, M. E. & Renew, A., 1975, Notes on some edible wild plants found in the Kalahari. Koedoe 18:1-12
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 67 (As Stapelia marientalensis)
- 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 4th April 2011]
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 28
- 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
- World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
