Invasive rat food - Carpobrotus edulis

I really enjoy seeing succulents growing completely wild. I do get to see some very large opuntias, agaves, aeoniums and smaller sedum around.
But this one here beats them all. It's a like a beach weed :)

Carpobrotus edulis

It is native to South Africa but managed to spared around the warmer parts of Europe and in Australia. It is so resilient to draught and hot sun that it became invasive specie.

I often find it on dunes and very close to the beaches. Not many plants grow there anymore - Carpobrotus does. It crawls and spreads creating nice, green carpets.
In spring and early summer when the flowers show up the view is just stunning!





The flowers are orange size and attract many insects that feed on pollen and nectar.
Later a fruit shows up and I heard (from @grecki-bazar-ewy) that they are edible. I have never tried it, but they do look a bit like opuntia fruits.

The leaves are very fleshy and on cooler and more moist part of the year they are green. In summer, when the the heat kicks in they will turn purple. You can see some of that colour already.

Some of them are not so lucky and the whole plant will burn to crisp - they they look like someone set them on fire. Just black, dry stems are left.

They do grow pretty fast and propagate easily. The stems, as they crawl on top the soil will grow new roots and and start to branch just to take over another part of the land.

Fileds of yellow sunshines look nice, but they can suffocate other plants not leaving any extra room for them to grow.

A little bit further away I also found the pink version. It is less popular around here and the yellow one is the star in most places.





Here is a cool fact:

On the Mediterranean coast, Carpobrotus has spread out rapidly and now parts of the coastline are completely covered. Moreover, another invasive species, the black rat, has been shown to enhance the spreading of the ice plant through its feces. As the ice plant represents a food resource for the rat, both benefit from each other which is referred to as invasive mutualism.
_source

Find a buddy and go take over the world :D

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_{Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.}