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Cryptocarya woodii
Also called Cape Laurel, River Wild Quince, Cape Wild Quince, Cape Quince, Bastard Camphortree
Cryptocarya woodii is a shrub or small forest tree from southern Africa, grown mainly for its laurel-like foliage and dark fruit. It does best in mild, subtropical conditions with good light and well-drained soil.
Cryptocarya woodii, the Cape quince, is a shrub or small forest tree native to Mozambique, Eswatini, and the Cape Provinces, Northern Provinces, and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. From mid-summer, the tree bears small, inconspicuous flowers. The ripe fruit have a bumpy surface and a shiny, purple-black color. The leaf veins reveal minute secretory glands(areolae) when held against the light. The larvae of Papilio euphranor and Charaxes xiphares feeds on the tree foliage.
The species was described by Adolf Engler in 1889. Its Latin name honors John Medley Wood, a botanist in Natal.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cryptocarya woodii 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.
