Fockea edulis

Fockea edulis is a caudiciform plant from South Africa where it grows over a wide distribution in dry rocky terrain, savannah and scrub. Over time, it forms a large fat taproot that can be elevated from its usual underground growing condition and displayed as a handsome caudex. It produces many thin, vining, branching stems that grow vigorously, wrapping themselves around anything in the near vicinity. For this reason it is best grown with an elegant wooden trellis or alternatively given a heavy pruning and shaping at the end of each growing season. The stems are adorned with lush, green, oblong, somewhat crinkled foliage and they exude a milky sap when damaged or cut.

Fockea edulis is named after the Surinamese/Dutch lawyer, botanist and ethnologist, Hendrik Charles Focke (1802–1856) who made many plant collections in what was then Dutch Guiana and who published many of his botanical papers in the periodical West-Indie, of which he was an editor from 1854-1856. The specific name, edulis refers to its use among the indigenous Khoi peoples of South Africa who roasted the tubers and then dried and ground them into a flour to make bread, the process deactivating the harmful alkaloids that the plant contains.

An easy caudiciform to grow, it requires a well-drained gritty substrate to keep it happy with regular watering and feeding in the growing season and kept dryish during the winter. Adding bonemeal or any other phosphorus-rich fertilser will enhance the growth of the caudex. Avoid burning direct sun on the foliage and protect from frost.