Acanthosicyos horridus
Acanthosicyos horridus
Safety & Hazards
None known
Cultivation Details
A plant of lowland areas in the very arid tropical deserts of southern Africa, where it is able to survive even in years when there is no rain[1]. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 15 - 30°c, but can tolerate 10 - 40°c[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 125 - 250mm, but tolerates 75 - 450mm[2]. Plants require a well-drained sandy soil on the poor side and a position in full sun[3, 2]. They can succeed in dry, saline soils, often growing where underground water is available[2]. Prefers a pH in the range 6 - 7, tolerating 5.5 - 7.5[2]. The leaves have been modified into thorns, which acts to give protection against grazing animals and also to minimize water-loss, making the plant very drought tolerant[2]. A deep-rooting plant, the roots can go down 40 metres into the soil in search of water[2]. A dioecious species, male and female plants must be grown if fruits and seed are required[1].
Propagation
Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-19. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Acanthosicyos+horridus>
Pollinators
Insects
References
- [1]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
- [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
- [3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
- [4]Nuts. — Howes. F. N. · Faber · 1948 · ISBN - ↩︎Rather old but still a masterpiece. Has sections on tropical and temperate plants with edible nuts plus a section on nut plants in Britain. Very readable.
- [5]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
- [6]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.