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Carpobrotus edulis
Also called Sour fig, Ice plant, Kaffir Fig, Common Sourfig, Edible Sourfig, Wild Fig, Yellow Sourfig
In Singapore: Ice Plant, Hottentot Fig, Pigface (Grown in Singapore)
Carpobrotus edulis is a creeping, mat-forming succulent from South Africa, grown for ground cover and coastal stabilisation. It thrives in full sun and sandy, well-drained soil, and tolerates poor conditions once established.
Carpobrotus edulis is a creeping plant with succulent leaves in the fig-marigold family Aizoaceae, native to South Africa. Its common names include hottentot-fig, sour fig, ice plant, highway ice plant, or vygie.
The sour fig grows on coastal and inland slopes in South Africa from Namaqualand in the Northern Cape through the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape. It is often seen as a pioneer on disturbed sites.
The fruit is edible (as with some other members of the family Aizoaceae), as are its leaves. In South Africa the sour fig's ripe fruit are gathered and either eaten fresh or made into a very tart jam.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Carpobrotus edulis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
