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Carpobrotus rossii
Also called Australian Pig Face, Beach Bananas, Pig Face
Karkalla is a low, mat-forming succulent groundcover native to coastal southern Australia, where it covers sand dunes. It thrives in full sun, sandy soil and salt spray, and needs very little water.
Carpobrotus rossii (formerly Mesembryanthemum rossii) is a succulent coastal groundcover plant of the family Aizoaceae. Native to southern Australia, it is known by various common names, including karkalla, pig face, sea fig and beach bananas.
C. rossii can be confused with rounded noon-flower Disphyma crassifolium subsp. clavellatum, which has also been erroneously called "karkalla" and "beach bananas" in the Australian native food trade.
The species occurs in the states of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.
Aboriginal people eat the fruit traditionally, fresh and dried. The salty leaves have been eaten with meat.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Carpobrotus rossii 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.
