Plant · P-533

Jujube Indian

Ziziphus mauritiana

Indian jujube is a thorny, fast-growing evergreen tree carrying a heavy crop of small tart-to-sweet fruit, eaten fresh, dried into a floury meal, or pressed into a refreshing drink, with bearing beginning after just three to five years. Its leaves and twigs are prized browse for camels, sheep, goats and cattle through the dry season, and the spiny thicket it forms doubles as a living fence. It is a different plant from the cold-hardy Chinese jujube that shares its common name - this one is strictly tropical and dies back at the first hard frost.