Carissa spinarum L.
C. edulis (Forssk.) Vahl
Eng.: Conkerberry, bush plum, karanda, karavanda, carline. Ara.: Arm.
Shrub, hermaphrodite, spiny, highly branched, 1-2.5 m in height. Bark of old branches greyish-brown, and green in branchlets. Spines usually simple. Leaves (2-4.5 × 1.5-3 cm) coriaceous, glabrous, broadly ovate or elliptical, with rounded base and apex acute or mucronate. Flowers subsessile (pedicels 0.5-1.5 mm), with a pleasant smell, and in terminal cymes, pedunculate (peduncle 0.5-2 cm), ebracteate. Calyx persistent (2.5-3 mm), with 5 lobes (c. 2.5-1 mm), lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent and greenish. Corolla pentamerous (1.2-1.5 cm), tubular at the base and expanded at the top, with white lobes (2.5-3 × 1 mm). Androecium with 5 stamens, with very short filaments inserted near the neck of the corolla tube. Ovary bilocular, glabrous. Style simple. Fruit a berry (6-8 × 4-6 mm), from subglobose to broadly ovoid, glabrous, reddish-brown, containing 2-4 seeds. Seeds flattened, lanceolate, 5-6 mm long.
Flowering:
Information not available.
Fruiting:
Information not available.
Habitat:
Spiny shrubland and forests with some moisture, also in rocky hills, between 600-1,500 m.
Distribution:
This species is mainly distributed in Palaeotropical areas (sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia), reaching Australia. In North Africa its distribution area spans from Sudanese regions of the Red Sea to the Jebel Elba.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Plummer, 2020). In the updated red list of Egypt (Shaltout & Bedair, 2023) it has been considered as Endangered (EN).