Carpobrotus rossii
COMMON NAME
Pigface, Karkalla
TRADITIONAL USE
Aboriginal people eat the fruit traditionally, fresh and dried. The salty leaves were also reported to have been eaten with meat.
You can apply the juice to sandfly bites or make a poultice of crushed leaves to apply to burns and scalds.
Extracts of the plant have significant in vitro antioxidant, antiplatelet, and anti-inflammatory activity.
Aborigines thought highly of this fruit, pressing the fruit between their fingers, they would drop the luscious juice into their mouth. They would also use the leaves as a substitute for salt with their meat (Low, 1991).
PART USED
Leaves and the pigface fruit when the flower is pollinated and spent. The fruiting body swells up and turns deep red,
SEASONALITY
All year round.
FLAVOUR PROFILE
The leaves have a soft wet pulp that tastes like salty strawberries or fresh figs (Low, 1991).
USES
White settlers used the fruit for jams and jellies, and the leaves cooked as vegetables.