Product Code Database
Acanthosicyos horridus is an unusual melon that is endemic to the Namib. In English it is known as Nara, butter-nuts, or butterpips; in one of the it is locally called ǃnaras or ǃnara ("!" is pronounced with a click, somewhat like the "tsk" when English people are tutting, tsk-tsk).
Acanthosicyos horridus typically occurs in the absence of other vegetation due to the harshness of the climate, though Eragrostis spinosa and Stipagrostis sabulicola grasses may grow between its . It is regarded as a keystone species because its melons, seeds, shoots, and flowers are food sources for beetles, gemsbok, and ostrich, while small rodents such as Rhabdomys pumilio, Desmodillus auricularis, and Thallomys nigricauda take shelter amid the spiny tangle of its stems. The Tettigoniidae Acanthoproctus diadematus feeds on the plant, moving between different bushes at night.
Black-backed jackals sniff out its ripe melon fruits using their jaws to bite through their tough skins. "The chewing molars of canids make them ideal agents for dispersal of large seeds." Such dispersal is long-distance (7–15.9 km). The jackals urinate on buried fruits and later return to them; it is suggested either to mark ownership or mask their smell from rival jackals. Seeds from their droppings germinate better than those extracted directly from ripe fruit. Further, seeds from their scats may then be collected by scatter-hoarding Gerbillurus which move them into microhabitats further dispersing them and optimising their germination. While other carnivores eat other fruits, this seems to be the first case where they might be a plant's primary dispersers.
The fruit serves as a food source for Nama people from February to April and August to September.
|
|
