Plant notes: Pigface

Russ Grayson
3 min readJul 17, 2022

--

The magenta flowers and succulent, triangular leaves of pigface.

Pig face is a sprawling succulent common on coastal sand dunes. Noticable for its bright magenta or pale yellow-coloured flowers and thick, juicy angular leaves, it is an Australian bush food.

Common name: Pigface

Botanic name: Carpobrotus glaucescens

Growth form: Scrambling groundcover with succulent, fleshy, usually green leaves and magenta or pale yellow, daisy-shaped flowers mainly in Spring and Summer, although it may flower at other times as well.

Centre of diversity: Australia

Natural habitat: Subtropical to temperate coasts. Sandy soils. A pioneer species of coastal sand dunes.

Useful part: Fruit pulp and triangular, succculent leaves.

Uses: Food, groundcover.

  • As a food, pigface fruit pulp is edible and the triangular cross-sectioned leaves are also edible raw or cooked and preserved as pickles. The fruit of the plant can be made into a jam.
  • As a groundcover, pigface protects soils from erosion and temperature extremes.

Reproduction: Cuttings, seed.

Garden design notes: Use pigface to protect soils from erosion and to retain moisture in soils exposed to strong sunlight. Established as an orchard area groundcover.

Notes: The juice of the leaves is said to relieve insect bites.

Photos: ©Russ Grayson. Creative Commons, attribution.

A red-leaved pigface, Tasman peninsula, Tasmania.

--

--

Russ Grayson

I'm an independent online and photojournalist living on the Tasmanian coast .