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Condalia hookeri
(Brasil) is native to the Rio Grande Plains, an evergreen growing to
15 feet. Branches end with a sharp thorn and when planted in mass an
impenetrable thicket. The leaves are an attractive lime-green leathery
teardrop (spatulate) ¼ to 1 ½ inch long. The wood is a pale gray that
can produce a blue dye used by Native Americans.
During the growing
season it is constantly flowering providing fruit in various stages of
ripeness. The tiny flat green flower has no petals and is inconspicuous.
The fruit color range from green to yellow to orange to wine-red to
purple-black (ripe fruit). During the growing season they produce an
abundant crop of small shinny purple-black fruit ¼ inch wide with a
thick, juicy, deep purple pulp that is quite tasty and eaten by both
wildlife and humans.
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