''Carpobrotus deliciosus'' (commonly known as sweet Hottentots fig, perdevy, ghaukum, ghounavy) is a succulent

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

of the family

Aizoaceae The Aizoaceae, or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1800 species. They are commonly known as ice plants or carpet weeds. They are often called vygies in South Africa and Ne ...

, native to a strip along the south coast of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Description

The flowers of this Carpobrotus ("Sour-fig") species range in colour from purple and pink to white, and these are followed by fruits that are less sour and more pleasant tasting that those of its relatives, hence its name. The receptacle is distinctively subglobose or "bowl-shaped", and it constricts abruptly at the base, where it meets the pedicel. The top of the ovary is often raised in the centre. Its leaves are almost straight (slightly subacinaciform) and curve mainly at the tip. They are a green to glaucous-green colour, sometimes becoming reddish.

Distribution and habitat

It is indigenous to the coastal rocks, dunes and plains along the far southern coast of South Africa. This coastal strip extends along the whole of the Eastern Cape coast, but also extends into the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

as far as Riversdale and into neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal. Its sweet edible fruits are grazed by tortoises and other southern African animals, and are also used locally to make traditional preserves. Of the other six Carpobrotus species which occur in South Africa, this species is particularly closely related to

Carpobrotus muirii ''Carpobrotus muirii'' (commonly known as dwarf sourfig or Dwerg Suurvy) is a succulent perennial of the family Aizoaceae, native to the Overberg region in the Western Cape, South Africa. Description This species of '' Carpobrotus'' has distin ...

which occurs just to the west of its range, in the Western Cape.

References

deliciosus Taxa named by Louisa Bolus Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Aizoaceae-stub