Over a few days I am posting photos of flowers from my garden as I am a bit limited on time for taking photos at the moment.
Today's flowers are called pigface. How can a plant so pretty be called pigface? Apparently it is also known as ice plant, sour fig, hottentot fig and clawberry. Its botanical name is Carpobrotus which comes from the Ancient Greek karpos meaning fruit and brotos meaning edible.
Apparently the flowers and leaves are edible but I have never tried tasting pigface so no idea what they taste like.
The juice from the leaves can also be used to help relieve skin burns, bites and stings, in much the same way as another succulent, aloe, does.
Beautiful shots of these lovely flowers. They are popping up all over the place here too. We call them sour figs and they are rather delicious, When the bloom dies off, the part that remains is a dried fig. The pulp is tasty and sour. As kids we used to bite into them and suck out the pulp. I never knew that the leaves could also be eaten. Now I just buy the jam and use it in sauces ;-)
Strange name for a plant with flowers so beautiful. Never heard about the name but my daughter in law had one in her house some months ago - don't know she still has it.
In Dutch: Hottentotvijg
@julzmaioro Interesting to hear what it is called in New Zealand.
@bkbinthecity @jamibann @casablanca @pcoulson @pusspup @joansmor @beryl @kjarn @denful @tinley23 @dide @happysnaps @leggzy @cwbill @sangwann @wakelys @mittens @shutterbug49 @busylady @gijsje @happypat @jernst1779 @olivetreeann @radiogirl Thanks, an unfortunate name and I haven't been able to find out how it got a name like pigface.
@ryan161 Ha ha I wouldn't call you pigface Ryan.