Pentarrhinum insipidum E.Mey.

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Pentarrhinum insipidum E.Mey.

Family: Apocynaceae

Common names: African heartvine (Eng.), donkieperske, hondepisbossie, opklim, wildekomkommer (Afr.), aulana, furana (Ndebele), umulugwe (Ndebele), leswa (Sotho)

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The leaves, stems and fruit of Pentarrhinum insipidum are widely eaten throughout Africa. It is an important wild vegetable and has the potential to be cultivated as a commercial vegetable. It is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, riboflavin and copper. It is an aggressive grower and in slightly disturbed areas exhibits invasive tendencies.

Description

Pentarrhinum insipidum is a slender, fast-growing, branching vine that sprouts from a woody, perennial rootstock and produces stems 2-3 m long. It scrambles over other shrubs or twines itself around trees and bushes. All the parts are delicately covered with hairs. The leaves are simple, stalked and broadly ovate to heart-shaped with a deep cordate base and pointed tip; the leaf blade is 200-650 x 15-50 mm; the stalks are 15-50 mm long, usually pointing downwards.

The corollas of the flowers are reflexed, arranged in lateral pseudo-umbels which hang from the nodes and are small, greenish to yellow, with the basal parts of the corolla sometimes tinged purple to brown. A white form occurs in the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal. The corona is white, beige, yellow or orange to brown-greenish, fleshy with a horn-like appendage. Flowers are fragrant and aromatic and are produced from November to April. The fruit is usually a solitary follicle, somewhat inflated, lance-shaped with an uneven, warty surface, 55-85 x 15-20 mm, with teeth 2-4 mm long. The seed is 6.0-6.5 x 4 mm, tightly packed, flat, with a marginal wing and with a tuft of white hairs at the one end.

Pentarrhinum insipidum | PlantZAfrica (sanbi.org)

 

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