Carissa bispinosa (100 seeds)

Carissa bispinosa.

Family: Apocynaceae

Common names: forest num-num, Num-Num, bosnoemnoem

This species is only occasionally tree-like (up to 5 m) and is more often a dense bush or rambling shrub in wooded spots or scrub. It is evergreen and twiggy, the branches exhibiting a repeated forked pattern. The plants contain a milky sap and the branches are often hairy. Spines are once- or twice-forked, rarely single, and are sometimes even absent. Leaves are opposite, simple, shortly petiolate, ovate, broadly ovate or ovate-elliptic, with a smooth margin, glossy dark green above, paler below, with short, thorn-like tips (heart-shaped tapering to a sharp point). Flowers are small, white or tinged pink, with a long, slender corolla tube, sweetly scented and clustered at the tips of twigs. Fruit are small, ovoid, edible, red berries. The whole fruit, including the seed, is edible and although the skin is slightly milky, it has a delicious flavour. It is not uncommon to find fruit and flowers on the same plant.

Locality: De Rust. Harvest: August 2024