Botanical Name: Harpephyllum caffrum
Common Name: Wild Plum

 

Use: Outdoors
Indigenous/Exotic : Indigenous
Evergreen/Deciduous : Evergreen
Plant Type : Tree
Flower Colour : Orange
Foliage Colour : Green
Best Season : All seasons
Light : Sun
Hardiness : Semi-hardy
Attributes :
Height (m) : 10
Spread (m) : 5
    
Notes : If you live in a warm, frost-free part of South Africa, this handsome,  dome-shaped, evergreen tree is an excellent choice. With its dense foliage, made up of narrow, shiny, dark green leaflets, it makes a good shade tree and a fine background or screening specimen. Smaller plants will grow happily at its feet. The wild plum’s dark leaf colour contrasts well with trees with lighter green leaves, like the Java fig, or with those with variegated or yellow foliage, such as the variegated weeping fig or Melaleuca bracteata ‘Revolution Gold’, as well as with red-foliaged plants.

 

Indigenous to the eastern Cape and Natal coastal regions, the wild plum thrives in other frost-free areas which have a fairly high rainfall, especially in summer. It can also be grown in winter-rainfall regions, provided it is watered in summer and protected from strong, drying winds. It is not suited to cold, dry inland areas.

 

As this tree can grow large, it needs an open position in full sun or partial shade. It is not fussy about soil but should be well watered until established, particularly during the summer.