Monday, 30 April 2012

Pink beauty in Greece! The Hottentot fig!

Read in Swedish: Rosa Middagsblomman vacker som ett konstverk!

This flower is common close to the sea in Greece, so if you have been here you probably have seen it. Now when I'm reading about it(didn't know the name before either)I'm surprised to learn it has edible fruits! I've never seen any fruits, so next time I have to take a closer look!

The Latin name is Carpobrutus acinaciformis and in Greek it's called Μπούζι σύκο (Boúzi síko), which means precisely Hottentot fig, but I actually don't know what Hottentot is...do you?

Except for by the sea the Hottentot fig also grows in the dessert, strange enough.

At wikipedia I read about the yellow Hottentot fig(Carpobrotus edulis), which seems to be more common. This flower is also called Iceplant, Highway iceplant, Cape fig, Pigface...!

These pictures were taken in Porto Rafti,a small seaside town at the east coast of Attica (40 km from Athens), where we were a couple of weeks ago.

They are so colourful with these pink/purple petals and all these yellow/orange stamens in the middle, pieces of art really! One gets happy seeing them, don't you think?

Anyone who has tried eating the fruit from Hottentot fig?

Otherwise we've had a really warm summerday today with +28°C (82°F) in the shadow...So we've already started to complain at the heat...

Have a great day/evening/night wherever you are!
☼☼☼

3 comments:

Irina said...

Beautiful Greece ! :)

Presley said...

You can eat the fruit by squeezing it, out will pop a clear thick liquid with lots of seeds. Wait until the skin is yellow, but don't eat the skin. I've heard you can pickle the leaves, haven't tried that yet.

Eva in Athens, Greece said...

@Irina
♥♥♥

@Presley
Thanks a lot! Will check them out next time I stumble upon Hottentot figs!
Have a great day!
P.S Love your tennisball art!!!