Dovyalis caffra
| Dovyalis caffra | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dovyalis caffra |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dovyalis caffra | ||||||||||||
| ( Hook.f. & Harv. ) Warb. |
Dovyalis caffra or the keiapfel is a species of willow family from southeastern Africa , from South Africa to Zimbabwe and Mozambique .
description
The Keiapfel grows as a drought-resistant, mostly evergreen , richly branched and thorny shrub up to about 3–4 meters high or as a small tree up to 8 meters high. The gray-brown bark is rough and cracked to scaly with age. The twigs and branches are reinforced with long, pointed thorns, which become fewer with age, they are up to 5–7 centimeters long.
The simple, short-stalked and slightly leathery leaves are arranged alternately or in tufts. They are ovate to obovate and have entire margins. At the top they are rounded to round-pointed, less often indented. The leaves are usually bare and up to 5–6 inches long and up to 3 inches wide.
Dovyalis caffra is mostly dioecious, dioecious gender . The axillary flowers are unisexual and with a simple flower envelope, the petals are missing. The green-whitish, male flowers appear in larger groups, the yellowish-green, female flowers appear individually or in groups of three. The flowers are five to seven-fold and have a short stalk. The sepals are fused at the base and have short hairs. There are many, long and protruding stamens, about 15. The unicameral ovary is on top with several protruding styluses or stylus branches. There is one discus each.
The round, yellow and thin-skinned fruits and berries are up to 4–6 centimeters in size. They are usually very finely haired to smooth, with a somewhat rubbery, firm shell and often calyx remains cling to them. Often there are still minimal stylus remains at the tip. The yellow, juicy, orange-apricot pulp is sour. The fruits contain up to about 12 hairy-fibrous and flat seeds about 8-10 millimeters long.
use
The fruits are used raw or cooked. The thorny bushes are also often planted as hedges.
literature
- Jules Janick, Robert E. Paull: The Encyclopedia of Fruit and Nuts. CABI, 2008, ISBN 978-0-85199-638-7 , p. 409 ff.
- Ernst Schmidt, Mervyn Lotter, Warren McCleland: Trees and Shrubs of Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park. Jacana, 2002, ISBN 1-919777-30-X , p. 430 f.
- Dovyalis caffra at KEW Science (Descriptions).
- Dovyalis caffra at Global Plants on JSTOR.
Web links
- Dovyalis caffra at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Dovyalis caffra at TopTropicals, accessed on September 10, 2019 (with many pictures).
- Dovyalis caffra at CJM Growers, accessed September 10, 2019 (with many pictures).