Lost Crops of Africa Volume III: Fruits (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 301-308
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is distilled from their fermented pulp. Indeed, they are so all-round popular that farmers from South Africa to Sudan and Senegal carefully preserve the trees when clearing land to make fields.
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302 LOST CROPS OF AFRICA The mealy fig-like flesh of the African medlar is sweet and refreshing and tastes somewhat like apple. It is an important and popular food.
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The wood, roots, and leaves have medicinal uses.2 Perhaps because of this, there is considerable positive superstition associated with these trees. Across southern Africa, for instance, local lore has it that a beneficent Vangueria infausta bears fruits heavily just before a big drought.3 And in Swaziland, stakes or pegs from the wood are used to ward off lightning.
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Some of those fruits were as big as 15 cm in diameter, an almost unimaginable size to those who've seen only the wild fruits. The researchers domesticating Vangueria infausta in Botswana have run into potential problems, however.
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, which aid in the plant's establishment, survival, growth, and productivity. They are now working on ways to ensure that the seedlings in the nursery have this beneficial infection on their roots.8 Food technologists in South Africa have also run into problems.
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Lagynias lasiantha (Sond.) Bullock12 Another fruit-bearing tree from a closely related genus, this species is said to produce fruits "as good, if not better than Vangueria."13 Native to tropical East and southern Africa, the fruits of this shrub are undoubtedly pleasant to eat and should be more widely enjoyed.
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