Red milkwood (Manilkara discolor)

Family: Sapotaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Manilkara discolor, otherwise known as Red Milkweed or Silvery Milkwood, is an evergreen tree with a dense and round canopy and has many branches. It is grown in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. It grows about 3 - 40 m in height. The trunk is smooth, light-colored, and straight. The leaves are large, oblong, and green with silvery hairs underneath. The flowers form into groups in leaf axils.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Fruit, Berries

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Fruit - raw. The juicy, fleshy pulp is very tasty. Eaten as a snack, especially by children and travellers, the seeds are discarded. — The juicy, fleshy pulp is very tasty.; Eaten as a snack, especially by children and travellers, the seeds are discarded.; The yellow to red, fleshy, oval berries are up to 13mm in diameter, enclosing an oval flattened pale-coloured seed.

Habitat & North American Range

Lowland and upland dry evergreen forest and well-drained sites in upland rainforest, at elevations from sea level to 2,100 metres. (Zone 10)