Lycium oxycarpum
Dunal
SolanaceaeFruit
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(c) Ann, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ann
(c) Ann, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ann
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(c) Dave U, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Dave U
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(c) Craig Peter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Craig Peter
(c) Craig Peter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Craig Peter
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The fruit are eaten as a snack.
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 thorny shrub. It grows 3 m tall. The leaves are alternate and in tufts on short shoots. They are 20-50 mm long by 3-11 mm wide. The flowers have both sexes. They are tube shaped and cream with the tube being purple. The fruit are oval red berries. They are 5-7 mm long by 3-5 mm wide.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Lycium oxycarpum is a shrub in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) indigenous to the Karoo regions of South Africa.
Names & Synonyms
Lycium austrinum MiersLycium bachmannii Dammerand others
References (2)
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 103
- 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
