Lauridia tetragona

(L. f.) Archer

Bob-cherry, Climbing saffronwood

CelastraceaeFruitPotential hazards — see below

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(c) Nick Helme, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Nick Helme

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(c) James Deacon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

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(c) Johan Huisamen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit are eaten, especially by children.

Known Hazards

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant. It occurs in dune bush. It is also in evergreen forest.

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 climber or scrambling shrub. It can be 0.6-2.5 m high. The branches are grey and flexible. The twigs are usually 4 angled. The flower shoots tend to grow backwards. The leaves are simple and opposite. They are leathery and 1.3-8 cm long by 0.6-5 cm wide. The edges of the leaves are often wavy and rolled inward. They often have spiny teeth. The flowers are small and white. They occur in clusters. The fruit are green but turn red or black when ripe. They have a stone inside. The fruit are edible.

Other Information

The fruit are eaten especially by children.

Notes

There are 80 Cassine species. Most are in Africa. The Celastraceae are mostly in the tropics and subtropics.

Names & Synonyms

Droelewer(bessies)

Rhamnus tetragonus L.f.Celastrus tetragonus Thunb.Cassine scandens Eckl. & Zeyh.Cassine latifolia Eckl. & Zeyh.Cassine latifolia var. heterophylla Sond.Allocassine tetragona (L.f.) N. RobsonCassine tetragona (L. f. ) Loes

References (7)

De Vynk, J. C., et al, 2016, Indigenous edible plant use by contemporary Khoe-San descendants of South Africa's Cape South Coast. South African Journal of Botany. 102 (2016) 60-69
Palgrave, K.C., 1996, Trees of Southern Africa. Struik Publishers. p 513 (As Cassine tetragona)
Palmer, E and Pitman, N., 1972, Trees of Southern Africa. Vol. 2. A.A. Balkema, Cape Town p 1315 (As Cassine tetragona)
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 80 (As Cassine tetragona)
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 43
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