Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Two rooted cuttings arrived today via overnight Fed Ex from the U.S.D.A. Tropical Agricultural Station in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico (aka TARS).

:woohoonaner:

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

The smaller of the two rootings has given up and died -- but the other has retained its leaves and is now pushing out 1/4 inch worth of new growth from a few nodes.

:woohoonaner:

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Sorry to hear that you lost one Richard.

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

My remaining plant has continued to grow, so today I transplanted it outside. It's barely visible here inside a shade enclosure made of garden fencing, an old screen from a screen door, and of course the indispensible duct tape :D

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Nice work!

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Hello again from San Clemente! How is the remaining Cleyera doing now? How did you go about getting the cuttings from TARS?

Thanks!

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Cleyera, known as Sakaki in Japan, is very different from Carissa. :)
My remaining Carissa spinarum is adapting very well now in full sunlight. :D

The USDA maintains a database of named plants and germplasm collections of many of these. You can visit their site at Taxonomy Query for GRIN Species Records.

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Geez, sorry about that. I had Cleyera on the brain that evening. Thanks for getting back to me.

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

Here it is, 3 years later!

Re: Carissa spinarum, one of the world's most nutritious fruits
 

It's been 5 years since Chiranjit Parmar started me on the quest for this plant. I started a cutting from TARS about 4 years ago and the plant has steadily grow to about a meter in size. It is doing well in my very mild winter climate where it might reach freezing for an hour before dawn about a half-dozen times per year. The leaves will get a little yellow and red blush during this period but overall that's fantastic for a plant whose native environment has a record low temperature of 45 F (~ 7C).

Since I started growing the plant, a lot of new information and research has come forward. There's a nice synopsis on Wikipedia, including the English name of the plant: Conkerberry - Carissa spinarum.

I've had a couple handfuls of fruit sets on my plant. Its delicious, better than Blueberry in my opinion. :08: