Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Tylosema fassoglensis - Climbing Marama Bean

EdiblePortion: Pods, Fruit, Seeds, Tubers, Root, Stems - Gum, Vegetable

A trailing or climbing plant. It is evergreen and shrubby. It can be 6 m long. It has a large tuberous root. This can be to a depth of 2.5 m. Young plant parts have rusty coloured hairs. The leaves are simple and almost round but with two lobes or divided at the tip. Leaves are 5-20 cm long by 6-23 cm wide. There are rusty hairs on the veins underneath the leaf. The flower clusters are 2-42 cm long on stalks 2-17 cm long. The flowers have 5 petals. Four of these are yellow and one is reduced to a green stub. The petals are yellow. The outer layer or sepals have wings. Fruit are 7-12 cm long and 4-7 cm wide. The seeds are not quite round and are 1.7-2.8 cm long.