Sansevieria pearsonii

N. E. Br.

AsparagaceaeFruitRoots

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(c) Felix Riegel, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Felix Riegel

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(c) sbahlesonke, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Root, Fruit

The fruit are eaten as a snack. The root is also an edible portion.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant.

Africa, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa, Zimbabwe,

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 herb. It grows 1 m tall. It has underground runners. There are 5-7 leaves. They are a dull dark green with red-brown lines. They are very sharp and pointed. The fruit is round and orange.

How to Grow

The plant spreads at the roots and often forms large colonies.

Propagation: Seed - Division.

Other Uses

A strong fibre is obtained from the leaves. It can be plaited into very strong cords. The fibres can be extracted simply by scraping the fleshy plant tissue with the sharp end of a stick, leaving behind the whitish, hair-like fibres.

Notes

Also put in the family Ruscaceae.

Names & Synonyms

Sansevieria deserti N. E. Br.Sanseviera rhodesiana N. E. Br.

References (2)

Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 98
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