When my cousin let me have clippings from some of the succulents in her back yard, she probably had no idea how lifechanging that was going to be for me. Neither did I. This was shortly after I had stumbled across a few articles about Eco tourism at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve near Mozambique. Holding armloads of cuttings from one bush that I particularly liked, I thought back on my reaction to seeing photos of what the South Africans know as Spekboom. A world away I could not help obsessing over this apparent superplant that we call Elephant Bush hereabouts. How happy I was to suddenly get a whole bunch of it!
I haven't had it long enough to see if it is going to live, but I left some cuttings in water to root and some in potting soil, and more outdoors. Rumor has it that these are hard to kill, but only time will tell. Considering how many I planted, some of them at least are bound to survive.
This one is Portulacaria Afra Green, but a few days later I bought a pot of Portulacarie Macrophylla (Mammoth), and then one called Rainbow, which has lighter colored variegated leaves (Portulacaria Afra Variegata).
One of the big attractions Elephant Bush plants have for me is that not only elephants, but people too can eat the leaves. Whether they are delicious depends on which variety you nibble on, the time of day, and I guess the temperature. The first time I tried to eat a raw leaf from the Afra Green, it was not just not tasty, it was pretty awful. But when I cooked a few leaves they were quite pleasant as was a bit of tea that I brewed from leaves of the Macrophylla. This emboldened me to taste a leaf from the Variegata and that one was truly was delicious. I went back to Lowe's and bought another pot of the Variegata.
Apparently, Portulacaria has a nutritional profile similar to purslane, but additionally it presumably improves air quality if grown indoors.
April 4: Update on the Portulacaria Afra cuttings. Just a few days short of a month after I put a number of the Elephant Bush cuttings under grow lights to root, some in water and some in potting medium, roots appeared on both types of cuttings. It is also evident that the branches I stuck in the dirt outdoors are rooting as well, because the plants are all looking good.
I have not tried baking the traditional Spekboom muffins with the leaves of this plant yet, but I did put a few leaves in cornbread to give it a nutritional boost. I cooked the leaves first.
Another thing that is really fun about this plant is that while it is drought tolerant, if it wants water it lets you know by shriveling up its little leaves which plumb back up again when it gets enough. Growing in pots, good drainage is necessary. I suspect that Elephant Bush stems can be grown indefinitely indoors in water the same as other succulents, since if the water is kept clean (and maybe aerated once in a while) there would be nothing to rot as in soil that is too wet. In any case, I will try it.
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