Diospyros Lycioides

This is what it looks like:

This is what it's fruit looks like:

This is what it's bark looks like:

This exciting shrub or small tree is a very tough plant which grows well country-wide. Its most attractive features are its smooth bark, blue-green leaves, fragrant flowers and colourful fruits that attract many birds and insects.

Description
The bluebush is a slow to fast-growing plant, depending on the climate. It is a deciduous to evergreen shrub to medium tree up to 5 m tall with an open crown and drooping branches. It has blue-green leaves, arranged spirally at the ends of the branches. The bark is dark grey to brown and smooth on older branches and stems, but covered with long hairs on young branches. It bears tiny, sweetly fragrant especially at night, creamy yellow, bell-shaped flowers. The flowers attract lots of insects and insectivorous birds, especially bees. It is necessary to plant both female and male plants to produce the attractive, deep-red, marble-sized berries which are eaten by various birds, dassies, monkey and also humans. The fruit has a pleasant, sweetish taste, with jelly-like flesh when ripe; the young fruit is covered by hairs, but is smooth when ripe and turns from red to reddish brown to black. It flowers from September to December and fruits from January to May.

Uses and cultural aspect
This widespread plant has many interesting and different uses. It is used to make beer. The roasted ground seeds were once used as a coffee substitute (Joffe 2001). The wood is used to build huts and to make spoons. A yellowish brown dye is obtained from the roots. The bark is used for tanning skins. The roots are chewed and used as a toothbrush. In the karoo it is valued for its shade and shelter, but it is said to taint the milk of cows. The roots are also used medicinally by the local people in various parts of the country. The roasted and powdered roots mixed with mutton fat, make a thorn plaster and are used to ease body pains. Nama people of Namibia, formerly South West Africa, believed that if the tree was cut with an upward stroke it would produce an emetic medicine and with a downward stroke it would be a purgative. It is reported that the Venda use it, together with gardenia, to appease the spirit of a young man who has died before marriage, as a charm to protect them from enemies.

Growing Diospyros lyciodes

Diospyros grow very well in a well-drained soil in full sun. Propagate from seeds soaked in hot water overnight, as cuttings are very difficult to root. Young plants grow very fast. For best result in your own garden add lots of compost, mulch and feed with slow-release 3:1:5 fertilizer and water regularly.

Use it as a hedge or screening plant. Only female plants bear the colourful fruit. Pinching out branch tips when young will encourage a bushy plant.