Grewia robusta
Burch.
(c) Mark Johnston, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Mark Johnston
(c) Craig Peter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Craig Peter
(c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Nicola van Berkel
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The fruit are used as a vegetable.
Where to Find It
It is a Mediterranean climate plant. It grows in dry soil. It grows in areas with an annual rainfall between 150-200 mm. It grows between 300-600 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, South Africa*, Southern Africa,
How to Identify
An erect evergreen shrub in the Malvaceae family that grows in Mediterranean climates with arid conditions, typically found in dry soil at elevations of 300-600 m in areas receiving 150-200 mm annual rainfall.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Grewia robusta is a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree, up to 3 m high, endemic to the semi-desert Karoo of South Africa, and very similar to Grewia occidentalis. It is one of some 325 species of Grewia in the family Malvaceae, and having a tropical African, Asian and Australian distribution. It is found in the arid regions of the Karoo and Eastern Cape, and generally prefers growing among dry scrub on rocky hillsides. The species has a twiggy and rigid form, with grey bark, while abbreviated twigs give it a spiny appearance. The leathery leaves are fascicled and about 25 mm in length with very short petioles. Like most Grewias its leaves are markedly 3-veined from the base; leaf margins are bluntly toothed or crenate to almost entire. Flowers are small, bright pink and fragrant. The hairy fruits are fleshy drupes some 20 mm across, reddish brown when ripe and either entire or deeply 2- to 4-lobed. This species is favoured by browsing Black rhino.
Notes
These were in the Sparrmanniaceae and the Tiliaceae.
Names & Synonyms
References (4)
- 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 11th June 2011]
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 76
- 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
