The Natal plum is a dense thorny shrub with snowy white, sweet scented flowers. It is native to South Africa, common in the coastal areas and part of the Apocynaceae family. This plant contains a milky latex sap but is edible.
The flowers are jasmine like, star-shaped with five petals each and gives off a pleasant fragrance.
They have leathery shiny dark green oval shaped leaves. The tips of the leaves are pointy and sharp which make this an ideal shrub for a security hedge.
The C. macrocarpa has oval shaped bright red, highly nutritious edible plum-like fruits of 5cm long. They appear in summer and autumn at the same time as the blooms, this attracts birds, butterflies and insects, making it an excellent plant to have in your garden.
It is evergreen, a fast and easy grower, and blooms for months. The plant thrives in full sun and semi-shade, is frost, drought, salt spray and wind tolerant.
