Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Pigface or Karkalla

Another seaside/salt marsh plant evident on the Yorke peninsula was  Karkalla or Pigface.

binomial name :  Carpobrotus rossii
common  name : Pigface or Karkalla  (aboriginal name)



look alikes:   Disphyma crassifolium  (round-leaved pigface) - also edible


C rossii is the South Australian species  -  we have C glaucesens in Qld - we planted some in our yard awhile ago but it is  still quite small.

It has  thick and fleshy leaves with a triangular cross section -  they are about 5-10cm long ( esp C glaucesens) and about 1cm wide.  The flowers are a light purple colour. When the fruit develops it has a salty strawberry flavour and apparently was a popular food of the Aborigines. The leaves can be used as a salt substitute when cooking.  I look forward to trying some fruit sometime - I have tasted the leaves and they are salty like the Samphire described yesterday.

The only pubmed abstract of note was about an extract of a pigface having anti-bacterial activity. Nutritionally the fruits would be useful in terms of anti-oxidants/vitamins but I was unable to locate actual details.


Note on the photos - I am fairly sure the photos are of Carpobrotus rossii and not the look alike Disphyma crassifolium-  as this trip was not planned we did not take any reference texts  and thus uncertainty arises, especially when these two plants are so similar. Apologies if they are mixed up!

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