Crassula arborescens

(Mill.) Willd.

Round-leaved crassula

CrassulaceaeRoots

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What to Eat

Edible parts: Roots

The roots are eaten.

Where to Find It

It is a warm temperate to subtropical climate plant. It grows on rocky hillsides. It can grow on fairly poor, well-drained soils. It is salt tolerant. It is best in a partly shaded position. It is resistant to frost and drought. Hobart Botanical Gardens. It suits hardiness zones 9-11.

Africa, Australia, Eswatini, Hawaii, Pacific, Slovenia, South Africa*, Southern Africa, Swaziland, Tasmania, USA,

Countries: Angola, Australia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Micronesia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Kiribati, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Seychelles, Sudan, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tonga, Tuvalu, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Vanuatu, Samoa, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A succulent tree. It grows to about 3 m tall. he bark is green-grey, succulent and smooth. The leaves are fleshy and bluish-grey. They are oval and tapering towards the base. They have a waxy bloom. They are 3 cm long by 3 cm wide. The flowers are pink and in clusters at the ends of branches. The fruit are small and 6 mm long. They have 3-5 separate oval follicles. The roots are edible.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown from seeds. They can also be grown by stem or leaf cuttings.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Crassula arborescens—the silver jade plant, silver dollar (jade) plant, beestebul, Chinese jade, cookie plant, money plant, or money tree, that is endemic to Western Cape, South Africa, is a species of succulent plant in the family Crassulaceae.

Notes

There are 216 succulent Crassula species. There are also other Crassula species. There are 300 total.

Names & Synonyms

Bull tacky, Drevesasta tolstica, Karka, Kerky, Silver jade

Cotyledon arborescens Mill.

References (13)

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Long, C., 2005, Swaziland's Flora - siSwati names and Uses http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora/
Palgrave, K.C., 1996, Trees of Southern Africa. Struik Publishers. p 201
Palmer, E and Pitman, N., 1972, Trees of Southern Africa. Vol. 1. A.A. Balkema, Cape Town p 655
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 97
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 47
Sp. pl. 1(2):1554. 1798
Staples, G.W. and Herbst, D.R., 2005, A tropical Garden Flora. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawaii. p 255 (Drawing)
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