Agelanthus natalitius subsp. zeyheri fruit

    Agelanthus natalitius subsp. zeyheri fruit
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Thabo Maphisa

    The fruit of Agelanthus natalitius subsp. zeyheri is a globose to ovoid berry on a thick stalk. It is ringed at the top around a dark patch. Green in picture, the fruit becomes red to black as it ripens. Fruit dimensions are about 1,5 cm long and 1 cm in diameter.

    Birds consume both the nectar and the fruit. By eating the fruits they disperse the sticky seeds on branches where rooting occurs, the new plant parasitising through the bark where the seed is deposited by the bird.

    The plant has been used as bird lime (Pooley, 1998; Germishuizen and Fabian, 1982; iNaturalist).

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