Natal-Plum

Carissa macrocarpa  (Ecklon) A. DC.

kah-RISS-ah macro-CAR-pah

Apocynaceae

Explanation of name: Carissa is a local name. Macrocarpa means large-fruited.

Natural range: Old World Tropics

Recognition: Shrub (or small tree, or ground cover, depending on age and cultivar) with distinctive forking thorns. The flowers star-shaped, white, and fragrant, the fruit resembling a plum.

Landscape uses: Tough, usually shrubby (ground cover to small tree) plants with high tolerance to salt, valued for oceanfront landscaping.          Cultivars marketed in South Florida include (descriptive data mostly from BR1, GRI): ‘Atlas’, ‘Boxwood Beauty’ (compact, semi-upright, thornless, mound-forming, with dark green foliage), and ‘Emerald Blanket’ (dwarf ground cover). ‘Horizontalis’ and ‘Green Carpet’ are creeping cultivars. ‘Boxwood Variegata’ and other cultivars have cream-variegation in the leaves.