Cheilanthes capensis

(Thunb.) Sw.

Lip fern

PteridaceaeLeavesSpice/Beverage
Cheilanthes capensis
iNaturalist · cc-by-sa
(c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Tony Rebelo
Cheilanthes capensis
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Petra Broddle, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Cheilanthes capensis
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Petra Broddle, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves - tea

The leaves are used to make tea.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant.

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 fern. It grows 23 cm tall. The fronds are closely spaced. They have 2 or 3 divisions of the leaflets.

References (2)
  • 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

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