- PLANT WITH LEAVES THAT HAVE SMALL SOFT THORNS CRACKED
- PLANT WITH LEAVES THAT HAVE SMALL SOFT THORNS FREE
Hence the name umLahlankosi- that which buries the chief. It was once customary that when a Zulu chief died, the tree was planted on his grave as a reminder or symbol of where the chief lies. Zulus and Swazis use the buffalo thorn in connection with burial rites. During the Anglo-Boer war, the seeds were ground and used as a coffee substitute.Īfricans have many beliefs and superstitions attached to this tree. The fruit can also make a beer if fermented properly. The berries are edible and were used by residents in the former Transvaal in making porridge or as a coffee substitute.
All of the above can be attributed to the peptide alkaloids and antifungal properties isolated from the bark and leaves. In East Africa, roots are used for treating snake bites (Hutchings et al. 1996). Steam baths from the bark are used to purify and improve the complexion (Palmer & Pitman 1972). Pastes of the root and leaves can be applied to treat boils, swollen glands, wounds and sores. A concoction of the bark and the leaves is used for respiratory ailments and other septic swellings of the skin. EcologyĪ decoction of the glutinous roots is commonly administered as a painkiller for all sorts of pains as well as dysentery. mucronata but which grows from central Africa northwards (Palmer & Pitman 1972). Christ's crown of thorns is supposed to have been made from Ziziphus spina-christi Willd., a species which closely resembles Z. mauritiana, the ber or jujube tree, the fruits of which are often found in shops which sell Asian foodstuffs. Another well-known species in this genus is Z. The genus Ziziphus includes some 86 species, of which the one discussed here is among the most common and best known trees of southern Africa. There are 49 genera and 900 species in the family Rhamnaceae (Simpson 2006).
PLANT WITH LEAVES THAT HAVE SMALL SOFT THORNS FREE
For all their smallness, these thorns are extremely vicious, and all those who have come into contact with them,will know that you have to wait-a-bit if you want to free yourself from them. The stipular thorns at the nodes give the tree its common Afrikaans name of wag-'n-beetjie. The species name mucronata is Latin meaning pointed, probably referring to its thorns or the apex of its leaves. This was taken into Latin as zizyphum, or zizypha for the fruits. The ancient Greeks called the tree zizyphon, from the Arabic zizouf, a name for the mythical lotus.
The seeds are usually solitary, elliptic and compressed. The fruit sometimes stays on the plant long after the leaves have fallen (March-August). The fruit is a smooth, shiny, leathery, spherical drupe, 12-20 mm in diameter, reddish-brown or deep red when ripe, slightly sweet, the pulp is dry.
Leaves turn golden yellow in autumn.įlowers are borne in dense clusters in leaf axils green to yellow ± 4mm in diameter inconspicuous (October-February). Leaves are simple, alternate ovate or broadly ovate vary enormously in size from tree to tree, 30-90 x 20-50 mm, tapering or often mucronate apex, base strongly asymmetrical, cordate to rounded on one side margin finely serrated, often badly eaten by insects, glossy green above, slightly hairy and paler below 3- to 5-veined from the base veins covered with fine hairs when young petiole up to 20 mm long stipules, when present, take the form of small thorns at the nodes, one straight and one hooked.
PLANT WITH LEAVES THAT HAVE SMALL SOFT THORNS CRACKED
The main stem is green and hairy when young year old branches often zigzag the bark is reddish brown or roughly mottled grey, cracked into small rectangular blocks, revealing a red and stringy under-surface. Ziziphus mucronata is a small to medium-sized tree, 3-10(-20) m high with a spreading canopy.
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