Lauridia tetragona

Description

A climber or scrambling shrub. It can be 0.6-2.5 m high. The branches are grey and flexible. The twigs are usually 4 angled. The flower shoots tend to grow backwards. The leaves are simple and opposite. They are leathery and 1.3-8 cm long by 0.6-5 cm wide. The edges of the leaves are often wavy and rolled inward. They often have spiny teeth. The flowers are small and white. They occur in clusters. The fruit are green but turn red or black when ripe. They have a stone inside. The fruit are edible.

Edible Uses

The fruit are eaten, especially by children.

Traditional Uses

The fruit are eaten. Eating too many dries the mouth.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Known Hazards

Eating too many fruit dries the mouth.

Distribution

It is a subtropical plant. It occurs in dune bush. It is also in evergreen forest.

Where It Grows

Africa, Eswatini, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland,

Other Information

The fruit are eaten especially by children.

Notes

There are 80 Cassine species. Most are in Africa. The Celastraceae are mostly in the tropics and subtropics.

Synonyms

Also Known As

Droelewer(bessies)

References (7)

• De Vynk, J. C., et al, 2016, Indigenous edible plant use by contemporary Khoe-San descendants of South Africa's Cape South Coast. South African Journal of Botany. 102 (2016) 60-69
• Palgrave, K.C., 1996, Trees of Southern Africa. Struik Publishers. p 513 (As Cassine tetragona)
• Palmer, E and Pitman, N., 1972, Trees of Southern Africa. Vol. 2. A.A. Balkema, Cape Town p 1315 (As Cassine tetragona)
• Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 80 (As Cassine tetragona)
• Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 43

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