Stem fruit

What it is

The oval fruits are about 1.5–2.5 cm (0.6–1 in) long. A tough skin encloses red pulp and a hard centre with one or two seeds. The sticky white liquid in the flesh is latex, the plant’s milky sap.

To separate the flesh, the fruit is cut along its ridge, opened and eased away from the pip. The edible portion is the flesh around that hard centre.

Where it comes from

Stem fruit is Englerophytum magalismontanum. The second part of its name refers to South Africa’s Magaliesberg mountains, but the tree has a much wider African range. It grows from Guinea and the Congo basin south through Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe to southern Africa. In South Africa’s Waterberg, it is a familiar tree of rocky ground.

How it's eaten where it grows

In South Africa, people squeeze ripe fruit in water and use the resulting liquid to cook maize porridge. The fruit also becomes syrup, tart jelly, wine and vinegar. In the past it was sometimes distilled into a very strong alcoholic drink, called mampoer in Afrikaans. Ripe fruit is also simply eaten fresh.

How it's grown

The evergreen plant can be a shrub or a tree, with several stems, a rounded crown and low branches that sometimes touch the ground. It reaches 2–15 m (7–49 ft). Tiny, strongly scented flowers cluster along the trunk and branches before the fruit develops.

Rocky outcrops and quartzite ridges suit it, and it withstands frost, fire and drought. Fresh seed and cuttings can both produce new trees.

When and where you'll find it

In South Africa, the fruit usually ripens from December through February. Green and ripe fruits can hang on the same tree together. In Tanzania, the usual ripe-fruit window is April through June.

In the Waterberg, crops come irregularly from year to year; a bearing tree can carry a heavy crop. In Tanzania the fruit is gathered from wild trees rather than farmed, and it isn't sold commercially.