Deinbollia
oblongifolia
Dune
soap-berry iQinisa-masimu Article by Geoff Nichols
Walk through any
patch of coastal bush along the coastal
belt of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to around East London and
you’ll find this medium sized shrub of about 5 metres tall. It is a
common garden " pioneer/volunteer" plant that
often arrives and looks in its early stages for all the world like a
young
forest mahogany (Trichilia dregeana). The leaves are compound and the
5-8
pairs of leaflets have a paler green slightly matt appearance hence the
confusion
with the forest mahogany, which in fact has a darker green compound
leaf
that is fractionally more glossy.
The dune
soap-berry is usually multi-stemmed and if it isn't then you
should nip out the terminal bud to force it to become multi-stemmed
thus ensuring more terminal clusters of flowers which are small and
creamy coloured.
It is however the pale yellow 10mm diameter fruits that make me
want this plant in my garden, especially in the winter months when all
else is dry and dormant this plant has ripe fruit that provides a
welcome meal for the birds and monkeys.
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If you are feeling
a little
adventurous then try the fruit the fleshy inner part is quite palatable
to us humans!
This plant has another use that we often overlook; the leaves are the
food for the larvae of two species of butterfly of which only the
former occurs in the Durban area the forest queen (Euxanthe
wakefieldi). The gold-banded forester (Euphaedra neophron) is arguably
South Africa's most handsome butterfly and its caterpillars feed on the
dune soap-berry and the jacket-plum (Pappea capensis) however the
gold-banded forester only occurs as far south as about Mtunzini. The
other butterfly that uses this plant as a larval food plant is the
black-and-orange playboy (Virachola dariaves) though the female lays
her eggs on the fruits and the caterpillars then eat the fruits. The
other butterflies that feed on this plant are the Charaxes. In this
case however it is the adult flying forms that feed on the sweet
fermenting fruits.
During the early summer you can also find another dune special growing
on Deinbollia this is a parasitic plant Tapinanthus kraussianus -
Krauss’s Mistletoe or the more descriptive common name of Lighted
Matches. This parasite has flowers that are attractive to sunbirds and
the fruits are relished by the fruit eating birds of the dune bush like
Sombre, Black-eyed and Yellow-bellied Bulbuls, the Golden-rumped and
Red-fronted Tinker Barbets are both great distributors
of this plant.
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When you have
found a flowering plant of the Mistletoe, mark the plant and come back
in
two or three months to collect the fleshy fruits. Pop out the inner
sticky bit that covers the seed proper, this sticky substance was
rendered down in
the past to make bird lime.
Then
stick the seed to a thin about
10mm branch or twig of a Dune Soap-berry and wait for the Mistletoe
seed to germinate, about one in five seeds will attach themselves to
the Deinbollia and there you are a new mistletoe in your own garden.
All in all
a very useful garden subject with value as a form plant in
the landscape as it is fairly columnar in shape and has distinct
terminal heads of leaves. Enjoys full sun but will survive in the shade
but not flower
as well. I often use this plant in herbaceous or shrub borders to add a
little interest and I also plant it in groups so that you get the
bulking
effect otherwise it can get lost amongst the other species especially
while
it is still small.
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