Thamnochortus insignis

Mast.

RestionaceaeShoots

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(c) Adriaan Grobler, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Stem tips

The stem tips are eaten, prepared by pulling the stems apart at the internodes.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in coastal sands.

Africa, 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 reed like tussock. It grows 2 m tall. It spread 3 m wide. The stalks are simple and smooth. Male and female plants are separate. The flowering shoots are small and golden-brown.

How to Grow

Plants are grown from seeds. The seeds are like small nutlets inside the flower. Seeds should be treated with smoke of soaked in smoke-water solution.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Thamnochortus insignis is a species of grass-like restio of the family Restionaceae. It is endemic to Cape Province in South Africa.

Names & Synonyms

Dekriet, Riet

References (3)

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
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 93
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