South African wild plum

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Leisure · Subcategory: Singular trees

This tree, popularly known as the wild plum (Harpephyllum caffrum), is native to southern Africa. It stands well established at the top of Calle Santo Domingo, near Plaza del Teatro Guimerá.
The specific epithet comes from Arabic Kafir (“unbeliever”), which gave Spanish cafre, the name once given to the people of Kaffraria, as the part of Africa south of the equator inhabited by non-Muslim peoples was called in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The tree we see reaches almost seven metres on a grey-barked trunk. The leaves cluster in a spiral towards the tip of each branch. The flowers are whitish or greenish-yellow. The fruit is slightly fleshy, bright red when ripe, and hangs in clusters.
The wild plum is a tree of notable taxonomic singularity.

28.465568, -16.250096