Euclea linearis
Zeyh. ex Hiern
Lance-leaf guarri, Lance-leaved euclea
EbenaceaeFruit
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(c) David Hoare, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by David Hoare
(c) David Hoare, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by David Hoare
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) allanweideman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) allanweideman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The small round black fruit are edible and sweet-tasting.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows on dry rocky ridges.
Africa, East Africa, Eswatini, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland, 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 small tree. It is 1-4 m high. It has many branches. These are slender and light grey. The leaves are mostly narrow and curved. They are hard and grey-green. Leaves are 1.3-8 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. They are narrowed at the base. The male and female flowers occur on separate trees. The flowers are small and cream. The fruit are small and round. Usually there is one seed. The fruit are black when ripe. The fruit are edible.
Names & Synonyms
Smalblaar gwarri
Euclea eylesii HiernPossibly now Euclea crispa subsp.
References (6)
- Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 187
- 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 738
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 53
- Schmidt, E., Lotter, M., & McCleland, W., 2007, Trees and shrubs of Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park. Jacana Media p 522
- 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
