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Fockea edulis (Hottentot Bread) - A thin stemmed vining semi-evergreen plant that can grow stems 10 feet long or more, arising from large (to 2 feet wide) succulent tuberous roots that are twisted and gray colored with wart-like bumps called tubercules. The leafy stems with 1/2- to 1-inch-long gray-green oval leaves will climb up on any available support and though it will lose some leaves in winter, it rarely goes completely leafless. This plant is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants - while the differences are subtle and some claim the plant not dioecious, the male flowers have anthers at the tips of the filaments that are lacking on female plants, which have the visible ovary structure in the middle of the flower. Some also note that female plants flowers have a fragrance that is either weaker or lacking on males. These flowers usually appear in summer months and have thick narrow green calyces and white petals with appendages. The 2-inch-long gray-green fruit forms on pollinated female plants and splits to reveal yellow brown seeds attached to long silky filaments that allow the seed to catch and fly in even gentle winds.
Grow in full sun (when caudex is buried) to light shade and in a well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally to infrequently. Can be grown in the ground but this plant is usually seen as an attractive potted specimen that is tolerant of going quite dry between watering but watch that the base does not shrivel and keep the elevated and exposed caudex partially shaded in summer. Hardy to light frost and short duration temperatures down to around 25°F. This is a great caudiciform forming plant to elevate for display in a nice shallow pot. In the wild, the caudex is partially or totally buried and tends to grow faster this way. Succulent growers will often keep their plant buried deep in plastic pots until the roots deform or even split the pots, letting the grower know it is time to repot or elevate the tuberous root for display. Train the stems up on some framework or trim to keep from growing over other nearby plants.
Fockea edulis grows naturally in the warm dry succulent scrub community and dry savannah of the Western Cape through Eastern Cape of South Africa north into Swaziland. It is listed as a protected as under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The name for the genus honors the Dutch botanist Charles Focke (1802-1856) and the specific epithet, meaning edible, is a reference to the use of the fleshy tuber as food and for moisture in dry parts of Southern Africa. The common name Hottentot Bread is also a reference to this use, but this practice is not recommended for the inexperienced as an elaborate cooking procedure is required to rid it of dangerous alkaloids. Our plants were seed raised from succulent grower David Tufenkian.
The information displayed on this page about Fockea edulis is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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