Carpobrotus edulis
Edible ice plant ( Carpobrotus edulis)
Called The Edible ice plant ( Carpobrotus edulis), also Yellow Ice Plant, horse fig, Hottentottenfeige or witches finger, is a flowering plant that belongs to the genus Carpobrotus, one of the genera that are called ice plant, within the family of Mesembryanthemum plants ( Aizoaceae ).
Description
Carpobrotus edulis grows with winged stems, which can grow up to 3 meters long. The green leaves are sharply triangular, almost upright, and 40 to 140 mm long and 7-29 mm wide. Her keel and the edges are serrated.
The single, terminally standing, hermaphroditic flowers have a diameter of 5-9 inches. They stand at 25 to 90 mm long pedicles. The tip of the sepals are very unequal. The initially yellow petals are pink colors in the aging of the flowers. They are 20 to 45 millimeters long, 1.5 to 3 millimeters wide and are available in 3 to 5 circles. The stamens are bright yellow and paler towards the base. The stamens are yellow. The nectaries form a dark green, notched ring. It blooms all year round, but most flowers are formed in the spring.
The club-shaped, indented at the top fruits are yellowish and have 7 to 14 chambers. They are 20 to 35 millimeters long and achieve just such diameter.
Dissemination
The natural range of Carpobrotus edulis is South Africa. It extends there from Cape Town to Namaqualand via Cradock and Albany in the Eastern Cape. In the south of Britain and adjacent islands, in California (USA), some Australian states and other states it is naturalized. The plants grow preferentially in humid coastal and mountain regions.
System
The first scientific description as Mesembryanthemum edule was published in 1759 by Carl Linnaeus in his work Systema Naturae. Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus put the type in 1927 in the genus Carpobrotus. Carpobrotus edulis is in the two subspecies
- Carpobrotus edulis subsp. edulis
- Carpobrotus edulis subsp. parviflorus W.Wisura & Glen
Divided. Carpobrotus edulis subsp. parviflorus differs from Carpobrotus edulis subsp. edulis by smaller flower diameter and uniform tip.
Ingredients
Carpobrotus edulis contains tannin, citric acid and malic acid, to which a regenerative, astringent, antibacterial and antifungal activity is attributed.
Use
The fruits that are easy to see a fig similar, have a jelly-like, sweet and sour pulp, and are edible. They are processed into jam ( sour fig jam ). The juice and the pulp of the leaves are, ear and tooth pain used in medicine for cleaning wounds and for the healing of burn wounds.
Carpobrotus edulis is how other Carpobrotus species, used for fixing dunes and cliffs.
Hazard for other plant species
The Edible ice plant is in many parts of the world, a neophyte, that is, it is originally not there before, but can very quickly conquer and colonize new areas. You can leach the soil, form hybrids with related plant species and displace the custom, endemic flora because of their modesty. Each fruit contains hundreds of seeds and so succeeded in edible ice plant, partly by seed dispersal to escape (for example, consumption of fruits by mammals ) and partly by vegetative propagation from human cultivation and form feral populations.