Albuca amboensis — Edible Plant Database

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves, Root, Bulb

Both the leaves and bulbs can be eaten raw and are used in salads.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant. It needs a light well drained soil. It does best in full sunlight. It can stand only light frosts.

Africa, Botswana, 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 bulbous plant with edible leaves and roots. Grows in light sandy to medium loamy soils with good drainage. Tolerates mildly acidic to alkaline pH. Requires full sun and adapts to both dry and moist conditions.

How to Grow

It can be grown from seed or by division of offsets.

Propagation: Sow seed in a greenhouse in a light, well-drained compost as soon as it is ripe if possible, otherwise in spring. Sow thinly so that young plants can be grown on in the same pot for their first year. Apply a liquid feed occasionally if seedlings appear to need nutrients, then prick out at the end of their first growing season. Grow on for at least one more winter in the greenhouse before planting out with bulbs dormant in late summer or early autumn. Can also be propagated by division of offsets in late summer.

Medicinal Uses

None known.

Other Uses

None known.

Wikipedia

A bulbous plant with edible leaves and roots. Grows in light sandy to medium loamy soils with good drainage. Tolerates mildly acidic to alkaline pH. Requires full sun and adapts to both dry and moist conditions.

Notes

There are about 30 Albuca species. They are native to Southern Africa. Also put in the family Hyacinthaceae.

Names & Synonyms

Ornithogalum amboense Schinz

References (7)

Anderson, M., 2002, The World Encyclopedia of Cacti and Succulents. Hermes House, New York. p 129 (Genus)
Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 253
Heinz & Maguire, 1974,
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 30
Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 65
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