Jackalberry Fruit

The fruit of the Jackalberry tree is a favourite of many animals. The fleshy fruit is oval, almost round in shape and about 1 inch in diameter and yellow or yellow-green in colour. Five sepals of the calyx of the flower remain on the bottom of the fruit, their tips curling backwards.
Two to six wrinkled seeds can be found inside the fruit. The skin is tough but the edible fruit has a chalky, floury consistency with a lemon-sweet flavour. They can be eaten fresh or preserved. They are also dried and ground into flour. A beer and brandy is also brewed from them.
When the Jackalberry fruit is fully ripe, it turns purple, but one hardly ever sees it this colour since it is eaten by various animals long before it can get that ripe. Animals such as nyalas, impalas, warthogs, baboons and hornbills to name a few, love to eat the fruit of the Jackalberry.
It got its name because the Jackalberry seeds are also found in the dung of jackals. The leaves are eaten by elephants, rhinos, giraffes, buffaloes, and kudus. The larvae of the bushveld emperor butterfly also eat the leaves of this tree.