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| syn. Ceropegia multiflora f. puberula ((Hiern) H. Huber), Ceropegia multiflora f. pubescens (H. Huber), Ceropegia multiflora var. latifolia (N. E. Br.), Ceropegia multiflora var. tentaculata [wrong], Ceropegia multiflora ssp. tentaculata ((N. E. Br.) H. Huber), Ceropegia tentaculata (N. E. Br.), Ceropegia tentaculata var. puberula (Hiern) |
| distribution:
Angola Botswana Namibia South-Africa: Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North-West-Provinz Zimbabwe |
| This plant was
and is an important food resource for the native Bushmen in South-Africa.
The Punguvlei- and Vasekele-Bushmen call it Ava and eat both the
leaves and the tubers raw. The tubers are said to taste like potatoes, but
they contain more water as potatoes. The plant itself has about 1,5 m long shoots which most often grow creeping over the ground and only rarely climb the surrounding vegetation. Their narrowly ovate to rhombical leaves are about 4 cm long and 2,5 cm broad and stand on a ca. 0,5 to 1 cm long petiole. Until 1993 two subspecies were distinguished by their flower-shape of which the ssp. tentaculata was said to differ from the nominate race in its open, not united petals, in fact in all plants those thread-like thin petals are sometimes united and sometimes not. Furthermore plants of both 'subspecies' have been found in the wild growing only 3 m apart from eachother. |
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above: Ceropegia multiflora (syn. Ceropegia multiflorum) Photo: Alexander Lang |
| References: |