Estate Living Magazine Design for living - Issue 42 June 2019 | Page 56

C O M M U N I T Y
L I V I N G
OM NOM NOM NOM
NUM-NUMS!
Quick! Which ridiculously handsome South African is wind-resistant, drought-tolerant, security-ready,
eminently prunable, easy to grow, farmable, culturally significant, and downright delicious?
Answer: the plant with the tastiest name of them all – the num-num.
In fact, we have two species of num-num in South Africa: the smaller,
twin-thorned, Cape version, Carissa bispinosa or forest num-num,
and the larger, but – just to confuse us – also two-thorned Natal plum
or amatungulu, Carissa macrocarpa.
Easy to tell which is which: the amatungulu (the one wearing the
Sharks jersey) is the larger of the two. Everything about it is bigger:
with glossy, leathery, quail’s-egg-sized, egg-shaped leaves, bright
red, date-sized fruit, and thorns as long as your thumb, Carissa
macrocarpa can mature into a dense shrub or even a small tree
of up to four metres, while its smaller cousin, which tends to be a
little more twiggy, has smaller leaves and berry-sized fruits. Both
bear beautifully fragrant, jasmine-like, star-shaped, white flowers
– although, of course, at an average of 35 millimetres across, the
amatungulu’s are almost three times bigger than the tiny, delicate
blooms of its little cousin.
Like all members of the Apocynaceae – the dogbane family – the
leaves, fruit, and branches of both species of num-num carry a
milky latex, which has a reputation for being poisonous. Fortunately
for epicures, though – and kids across the continent – the fruits
themselves aren’t toxic.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Om nom nom nom
Leaving aside the forest num-num for a moment – since both
species will grow quite happily in almost all but the coldest parts of