Augea capensis, baboons food

Augea capensis is commonly referred to as baboon’s food. One wonders which part tastes best: leaf, fruit, flower or root?

A series of flowering stages is displayed in this clustered inflorescence turning fruit bunch. In the youngest in view, the five sepals still cover their would-be flowers, revealing that sepals are unequal in this plant. In another, some yellow inside of the flower is visible. Yet others already have the ribbed, cylindrical fruits exserted at various lengths above the decaying sepal tips.

The surrounding leaves are not ribbed like the fruits. They are slightly curved with tiny apical mucros present. Another type of slight protrusion is in view: the darker, longer and stick-like style remainder upon each fruit tip.

There is a slight colour difference between leaves and fruits, grey-green on the leaves, yellow-green on the fruit. The yellowest part on the plant in view is the open flower, followed by fading sepal tips and a couple of dying leaves (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).