by Dr. Marli Botha
According to the Department: Agriculture, Forestries and Fisheries (DAFF), these are considered the most important South African indigenous fruit crops: Marula, mobola plum, red milkwood fruit, wild medlar, kei apple, monkey orange, sour fig and sour plum. Today’s Hero is the Mobola Plum.
Here are some facts for the Mobola Plum:
1. MOBOLA PLUM is (Parinari curatellifolia) also known as cork tree, hissing tree (Eng.); grysappel, bosappel (Afr.); mmola (N. Sotho); mbulwa (Tsonga); mobola (Tswana); muvhula (Venda).
2. The fruit is yellow-red in colour, turning brown as it ripens. These plum-like fruits have a pleasant taste when completely ripe and tend to ripen on the ground during the months of October to January.
3. Parinari curatellifolia is very widespread, ranging from the south in Mpumalanga and Swaziland, towards Zimbabwe and the Limpopo Province in the north, and into central Africa.
4. The bark produces a pink-brown dye which is associated with the tradition of basket-making.
5. The timber is very durable, hard and heavy (720kg/m3), and is often used for fine woodwork, mortars, canoes and mine timber. The wood contains a high quantity of silica crystals and is strongly fire resistant.
