Plant lexicon

Succulent leaf rosette with thickened, lanceolate, bluish-grey shimmering leaves. The flowering stalk – which only grows after a number of years – is a panicle up to 9 metres in height with as many as 35 yellowish partial flowers on the upper third of the flowering stem.

Perennial herbaceous plant with a rosette of lanceolate leaves. The cone-shaped growing point is upright above the rosette, with up to 100 densely packed individual flowers from which the pineapple berries are formed. When ripe it is a deep yellow to brownish colour with juicy pulp and a solid central core.

Shrub or small tree with wide-spreading crown and heart-shaped, prominently veined leaves. The spiny fruit capsules have two chambers filled with 20 to 50 ovate seeds that produce a red dye and are attached to each side of the fruit.

A shrub or tree with small ovate leaves and stiff thorns. The thin, light green, slightly curved citrus fruit has a loose, green to pinkish pulp consisting of spherical juice-filled vessels.

Medium-sized evergreen tree with dense crown and elliptical leaves up to 30 cm long. Avocados are pear-shaped berries with a warty, irregular skin which varies from dark green to purplish-black. Each fruit has a spherical seed and creamy, greenish-yellow flesh.

Deciduous to evergreen tree growing up to 25 metres with shiny green, pinnate leaves and small white scented flowers. The tree produces plum-sized golden yellow fruits with a single seed.

Large, sparsely branched, evergreen shrub with a short trunk and large heart-shaped leaves with fine hairs. The tree tomatoes are long-stalked, hanging berries the size of a hen’s egg with an orangey-red skin.

Small tree with smooth, shiny dark green, oblong leaves and white flowers. The fruits are roughly pear-shaped and have a rough, ribbed skin that turns lemon yellow to orange when ripe. The pulp is divided into several segments containing relatively little juice and scarcely any seeds.

Small-leaved evergreen shrub to tree with much-branched crown and smooth, dark green leaves. The ripe figs are borne directly on the branch and are small, orange to red aggregate fruits.

Evergreen tree up to 7 metres high with slender branches and pointed, shiny, dark green leaves. The tree produces spherical, oblate, red to almost black berries with 6 to 8 projecting ribs.

Evergreen tree up to 20 metres high with white latex. The leaves are up to 80 cm long, deeply lobed, leathery and dark green. The aggregate fruits are green, up to 30 cm in size, with a rough surface and white, floury pulp.

Tree up to 12 metres in height with large leathery leaves and prominent light yellow leaf veins. The kidney-shaped nuts are formed beneath a much-thickened, fleshy, yellow to red pedicel (fruit stem) that is very sensitive to pressure.

Fast-growing, upright shrub up to 3 metres high with hand-sized, 3- to 5-lobed, green leaves and small capsules around 2 cm in size.

Herb to small shrub with oblong-ovate to round green leaves with a pointed tip. The flowers are small and usually white to yellow, forming in the leaf axils. The fruit is a berry, usually pointed or oval with several indentations. When ripe, the colour can vary from yellow to orange, red, brown or white. Unripe chillies can be green, purple or black.

Lignifying fan palm with shrubby growth form arising from a common, trunk-forming rosette. This starts with persistent leaf sheaths, some with dried leaves. At the top of the plant are upright fan leaves with a diameter of up to 2.5 metres on strong, lignifying, scaly leaf stalks. The yellow flowers are in a panicle and are followed by dark ovate fruits.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Climbing plant with long shoots and few points of attachment. The green leaves are even-pinnate and produce terminal racemose inflorescences. The flowers are white and star-shaped with a long stalk.

Evergreen shrub or tree with odd-pinnate, slightly silvery leaves which are unevenly divided from the leaf scar. The plant produces round, dark purple, edible fruits with two poisonous seeds.

Succulent tillering plant that grows in groups. Each rosette produces around 16 lanceolate leaves with a smooth, green and white flecked surface and pale teeth along the leaf margins. Aloe vera has a viscous leaf sap and can produce a tall inflorescence with pointed yellow flowering racemes.

Herbaceous winding creeper with heart-shaped, long-stalked, dark green leaves. It produces a large white flower with yellow stamens and later a roundish, scarlet red pepo (a type of berry).

Creeping annual with clover-like leaves. The fruit grows at a soil depth of about 8 cm. It has a light brown colour and a tough, fibrous, wrinkled pericarp. Inside the non-opening pericarp are 2 oblong-ovate seeds containing the embryo.

Small evergreen tree with round crown, almost no thorns and thick, lanceolate, dark green leaves. The fruits are round with a thin, bright orange skin containing numerous oil glands. The clementine has 8 to 12 segments and occasional seeds.

Evergreen tree growing up to 16 metres high. It can be epiphytic but also terrestrial. The thick, dark green leaves are spirally arranged and reach a size of up to 45 cm. The tree produces small inconspicuous fruits.

Also known as Indian or Asian pennywort. Perennial, herbaceous creeping plant with long-stalked, broadly heart-shaped, luscious green leaves. The flowers grow in 4-flowered umbels and form small schizocarpic fruits. 

Large deciduous tree with dark green, slightly silky, lanceolate leaves in large bunches. The ovate pepo (a type of berry) can grow up to 25 cm. The skin is thick and rough and the soft pulp is red to orange in colour. The mamey sapote fruit contains a large blackish-brown, spindle-shaped seed.

Evergreen tree up to 15 m high with fine, hairy leaves. Deciduous when temperatures fall below 12 degrees.

Reed-like herbaceous plant with a pseudo-stem made up of leaf stems, approx. 1 metre high with lanceolate leaves. The rhizome emerging from the soil is nodular with an irregular form. Ginger has yellow or magenta flowers forming a spike.

Evergreen tree up to 12 metres in height with thin, leathery, smooth-edged leaves. The fruits of the pimento are spherical dark berries that grow in panicles and lose their flavour when fully ripe.

Evergreen tree with round crown and hairy twigs. The leaves are elliptic, up to 30 cm long and have brown hairs on the underside. Loquats are oval, orange-coloured pomes approx. 5 cm long with a firm, juicy pulp and up to five dark seeds in the centre.

Evergreen shrub to small tree with tough, elliptical, shiny dark green leaves. The flowers are white and grow in clusters on the branches of the shrub. The stone fruits produced are round to oval and yellow or dark red when ripe. The leathery pericarp encloses two beige to green seeds that are flattened on one side, surrounded by a mucilaginous firm coat.

Evergreen tree up to 12 metres tall with elliptical, lanceolate leaves and clusters of flowers borne directly on the trunk (cauliflory). The resulting berries are ovate and longitudinally grooved, and turn yellowish or reddish-brown when ripe. The cocoa fruit contains white mucilaginous pulp with 30 to 60 brown seeds.

Upright herbaceous plant with dark green, pointed, lanceolate leaves. It produces white, two-lipped flowers in panicles, giving rise to a capsule with numerous yellowish seeds when fertilized.

Tree up to 30 metres in height with a low, drooping crown, oval leathery leaves, and oblong green follicle fruit. These contain 4 to 10 magenta seeds embedded in white pulp.

Evergreen shrub with shiny dark green, elliptical leaves that grows up to 4 metres. Its sweet-smelling white flowers give rise to oval, orange-coloured citrus fruits that are 2 to 4 cm long. The pulp is divided into up to 6 segments and has an aromatic acidic smell.

Evergreen tree up to 10 metres in height with rough bark and even-pinnate, leathery dark green leaves. Lychees are special stone fruits growing in a lax inflorescence with red, leathery to brittle, warty skin. The juicy white pulp contains a smooth, hard, dark brown seed.

Evergreen tree up to 20 metres in height which produces milky latex. The dark green leaves are thick and leathery with a rounded end. A leathery, hairless pepo (a type of berry) is produced which can weigh up to 1 kg. It is covered with a thin yellowish skin, and when ripe has soft, floury pulp with large hard seeds.

Evergreen tree up to 30 metres in height with leathery dark green, oval lanceolate leaves. The mabolo is related to the persimmon and also produces a round orange-coloured fruit. This is a velvety berry with yellow, fibrous floury pulp containing 4 to 8 smooth seeds.

This tree, growing up to 10 metres in height, has oblong opposite leaves that are shiny dark green and covered with oil glands on both sides. Flowers are borne in the leaf axils or terminal panicles and are greenish-white with large numbers of brush-like stamens. The white to pale yellow rose apple is oval to pear-shaped and has four fleshy sepals at the end of the fruit. A cavity in the stone fruit contains two brown seeds. 

Densely leafy evergreen tree up to 25 metres high with elliptical, leathery, greenish-yellow leaves. The pink to yellowish flowers are followed by fist-sized, dark to reddish purple berries with woody sepals. The hard, porous skin contains soft reddish-white pulp divided into 5 to 8 segments.

Medium-sized tree up to 13 metres tall with elongated elliptical, leathery leaves around 10 cm in length. Its numerous small white flowers give rise to small red stone fruits with several seeds.

Shrub up to 5 metres high with heart-shaped, sparsely hairy leaves, on average about 30 cm in size, and a thick, watery stem. The plant produces long creamy-white flowers in upright ears but spreads very successfully via root suckers.

Evergreen shrub with dense foliage at the ends of the branches. The light green leaves grow in bunches and are oblanceolate. The small white flowers give rise to ovate red miracle berries the size of cherries which contain a whitish pulp and a hard seed that is relatively large in relation to the berry.

Tree up to 10 metres in height with thin, oval, bipinnate leaflets. The cream-coloured flowers hang in long panicles and form similarly pendulous brown capsules up to 30 cm in length, which open into three valves when mature.

Thorny, much branched shrub with latex and oval, dark green, leathery leaves. The large white scented flowers give rise to spherical berries which are bright red when ripe and contain around 16 small brown seeds.

Small evergreen tree or shrub with angled branches and large, ovate, opposite, leathery and shiny dark green leaves. The flowers appear in bunches, each of which forms a bumpy, elliptical compound stone fruit up to 12 cm long. When ripe this is white to slightly transparent with yellow, warty calyx remains and ovate stones.

Evergreen tree with very short thorns, densely leafy crown and leathery oval leaves. The flowers are white with a strong, pleasant scent. When ripe the oranges are orange in colour, and the pulp is arranged in segments composed of numerous juice sacs containing white seeds.

This dioecious plant has a tree-like habit but the trunk is not lignified. Usually unbranched and with clearly visible leaf scars, the trunk grows up to 7 metres in height and contains latex. The large dark green, tuft-like leaves arising from the crown in a spiral arrangement are long-stalked, palmately lobed and notched. The cream-coloured male flowers grow in long panicles, the female flowers directly on the trunk. The elongated oval berry weighs several kilograms and ripens to an orangey-red. When fertilized it contains numerous round black seeds.

Evergreen climbing plant with deeply three-lobed, shiny dark green leaves, slightly toothed at the margins, and flowers borne in the leaf axils. The violet and white passion flowers have a conspicuous tripartite style surrounded by five male stamens. The oval berry the size of a hen’s egg is yellow to magenta and contains a large number of seeds in a juicy pulp.

Herbaceous plant to subshrub with tomentose, lignifying stem and broadly ovate leaves tapering to a point with irregularly indented leaf margin. The inflorescence spikes are violet and likewise tomentose. Patchouli produces schizocarpic fruits consisting of four spherical seeds.

Upright or climbing shrub with thin, rounded oval to heart-shaped, smooth, dark green leaves. The white flowers with up to nine petals are arranged in mostly five-flowered inflorescences. The berry is spherical and magenta to black in colour.

Climbing liana with adventitious roots and leathery, elliptical, heart-shaped leaves. The flowers of pepper are inconspicuous with greenish-yellow, pendulous spikes on which grow the single-seeded stone fruits that are first green and then red.

Evergreen twining climber with alternate, heart-shaped, light green leaves and thin pliant shoots. The Dutchman’s pipe produces flowers up to 30 cm in size whose curved perianth tube ends in a heart-shaped oval. The colour is violet-brown to light pink with white speckles and branching lines. It produces capsules with a large number of seeds.

Climbing cactus with three-winged cross-section and long adventitious roots. The yellowish-white flowers are up to 30 cm long and are composed of numerous petals. The dragon fruit is a hand-sized, red, scaly fruit with juicy pulp and countless tiny black seeds.

Bushy herbaceous hanging plant with dark green leaves that taper to a point and have silvery, irregular markings in the centre. The flowers are terminal with two lips and are a bright magenta colour. They produce small ribbed seeds.

Evergreen tree up to 35 metres in height with soft hairy twigs and a wide-spreading crown. The green pinnate leaves are up to 25 cm long and have similarly pinnate leaflets along the leaf vein (bipinnate). Parkia produces yellowish hanging racemes of brush-like flowers which subsequently produce up to 50 cm-long green pods with round seeds that protrude clearly from the pods.

Herbaceous perennial forming bulbs that produce 2 to 16 large, dark green, glossy lanceolate leaves. A long flower stalk is formed that can produce up to 16 flowers. These are white and star shaped with six elongated perianth segments. There are 6 yellow stamens which are fused at the centre. The fruits are large, green, spherical capsules with fleshy green seeds.

Evergreen tree up to 25 metres in height with leathery lanceolate leaves up to 30 cm long. The flowers are greenish-yellow with a cup-shaped, incurved calyx and a tube-shaped corolla. The resulting berries are smooth and olive green when ripe and have a soft, shiny brown pulp with up to 12 large seeds.

Evergreen tree up to 8 metres in height with an open crown and leathery, dark green leaves that give off a scent when rubbed. The flower is greenish-yellow and consists of three sepals and three petals that are firm and fleshy. The carpel gives rise to single berries which fuse with the receptacle to form a soft, green, prickly aggregate fruit with creamy white pulp. This contains numerous dark seeds.

Small evergreen tree with pinnate leaves, each with 5 to 13 short-stalked, finely hairy, green leaflets approx. 4 cm long. The small pinkish-white flowers grow in panicles in irregular groups. The fruit is a five-ribbed berry with a star-shaped cross-section and turns shiny yellow when ripe. The slightly translucent, watery pulp contains several elliptical brown seeds in a gelatinous seed coat. 

Fast-growing perennial shrub with narrow lanceolate leaves that have a toothed margin and are white and slightly wrinkly underneath. The flowers grow from the scar of shed leaves and are green and spherical with furred stamens. They give rise to pea-sized, orange-coloured aggregate fruits resembling raspberries, with tiny seeds.

Evergreen shrub up to 6 metres in height with thorns and dark green, serrate leaves with winged leaf stalks. The flowers are white and borne in clusters in the leaf axils. The light, pale green pulp of this green-skinned citrus fruit is divided into up to 11 segments and has almost no seeds.

Growing up to 2 metres high, the bulbous, thickened, club-shaped rhizomes of this herbaceous plant contain white flesh with light brown speckles. The heart- or arrow-shaped bluish-green leaves are up to 60 cm long with long stalks. The leaves are velvety, soft and hydrophobic, somewhat lighter underneath with very clear venation. Formed in the axes of the bracts are upright flower stalks with a golden-yellow spathe and pale yellow spadix, which later give rise to green to reddish-orange berries.

Shrub or tree with stout branches and thick leathery leaves up to 40 cm in length, tapering to a point. The underside of the leaf is hairy and the leaf margin curved. The compact, vigorous inflorescences have numerous white flowers with a yellow centre. The five petals are turned inwards in an anti-clockwise direction. Frangipani forms two follicle fruits per flower.

This climbing creeper has reddish shoots and thin, arrow-shaped to triangular, dark green leaves. The upright inflorescences form small white flowers arranged in racemes. The tuber fleeceflower forms a thick nodular rhizome. 

Perennial, herbaceous water plant with thick, smooth, upright stems from a basal rosette and a strong rhizome. Its soft leaves are slightly hairy, heart- to kidney-shaped, and with marked venation running from the stalk. The loose, upright, racemose inflorescence has small white four-petalled flowers which later produce green pods.

This broad-crowned tree grows up to 18 metres tall and has long-stemmed, palmately lobed leaves with 3 to 7 green lanceolate leaflets. It forms short panicles bearing whitish-green flowers with green ovaries. These ovaries give rise to round, greenish to yellow, leathery stone fruits the size of an orange, with a thin skin and up to five white seeds.

Huge tree up to 70 metres tall, but with only a few strong branches in the upper part. The trunk is silvery grey and dark green in colour and forms buttress roots with age. Young trunks and branches often carry prickles. The leaves are shiny, digitately lobed with lanceolate leaflets up to 20 cm long. The flowers are white to pink and produce yellowish oval capsules with five valves that contain the kapok – white, downy seed hair and black seeds.

Bushy shrub with lignifying, branched stems and light green leaves growing in terminal clusters. The leaves have soft velvety hairs and double-notched toothed margins. The plant forms unremarkable pink or white flowers.

Perennial, up to 6 metre tall grass with a strong, clearly segmented shoot on which bipartite, arched, beigy green leaves are arranged. The flowers grow in long, delicate, silvery white panicles. Sugarcane does not produce seed in cultivation.