page_title: Carissa spinarum
section_title: Synonyms
hierarchical_section_title: Carissa spinarum / Synonyms
context_page_description: Carissa spinarum, the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family, widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called currant bush or, more ambiguously, native currant or even black currant. It is, however, neither closely related to plums nor to true currants, which belong to entirely different lineages of eudicots. In India, it is also called wild karanda /wild karavanda, referring to the related karanda. Carissa spinarum is often discussed under its many obsolete synonyms.
  It grows as a multi-stemmed shrub, 0.5 to 3 metres in height. The leaves are glossy green, opposite, narrow ovate to lanceolate and 1–5 cm in length. The branches bear thorns of 1–3 cm length. White, star-shaped flowers ~1 cm across are followed by ovate green berries, 1–2 cm in length, which turn black or dark purple when ripe.
context_section_description: Well known for its fruit to locals and quite variable across its wide range and diverse habitat types, the conkerberry has been described time and again by botanists under a number of names. Robert Brown alone described it no less than four times under different names, and R.H. Beddome not only described it twice as a "new species" of Carissa, but believed two other growth-forms of it to be mere varieties of Karonda (C. carandas). The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia records the plant under the name Carissa Ovata and says "This little bush produces a very pleasant fruit, which is both agreeable and wholesome. It is like a sloe, egg-shaped, and about half-an-inch long. It exudes a viscid milky juice and contains a few woody seeds. "I can testify that the fruit is both agreeable
  and wholesome, and I never knew an instance of any evil consequences, even when they were partaken of most abundantly." (Tenison-Woods, Vol. vii., 571., Proc. Lirin. Soc. N.S.W.)".
  But in fact, C. spinarum was already named by Carl Linné in his 1771 Mantissa Plantarum, and thus all subsequent names are treated as junior synonyms. In Myanmar, it is known as Burmese: ခံစပ်; MLCTS: hkang sap.
  The following list gives the names under which the conkerberry has been placed in Carissa. Apart from that, it has also been assigned, under various names, to Antura and Arduina (both now synonymized with Carissa), as well as Azima, Cabucala, Chapelieria, Damnacanthus, Strychnos, Carandas, and Jasminonerium.
  
  
   
  Carissa abyssinica R.Br.
  Carissa africana A.DC.
  Carissa axillaris Roxb.
  Carissa brownii F.Muell.
  Carissa campenonii (Drake) Palacky
  Carissa candolleana Jaub. & Spach
  Carissa carandas var. congesta (Wight) Bedd.
  Carissa carandas var. paucinervia (A.DC.) Bedd.
  Carissa cochinchinensis Pierre ex Pit.
  Carissa comorensis (Pichon) Markgr.
  Carissa congesta Wight
  Carissa coriacea Wall.
  Carissa cornifolia Jaub. & Spach
  Carissa dalzellii Bedd.
  Carissa densiflora Baker
  Carissa diffusa Roxb.
  Carissa dulcis Schumach. & Thonn.
  Carissa edulis (Forssk.) Vahl
  C. edulis var. septentrionalis is probably a valid species, Carissa septentrionalis
  Carissa hirsuta Roth
   
  Carissa horrida Pichon
  Carissa inermis Vahl
  Carissa lanceolata R.Br.
  Carissa laxiflora Benth.
  Carissa macrophylla Wall.
  Carissa madagascariensis Thouars ex Poir.
  Carissa obovata Markgr.
  Carissa oleoides Markgr.
  Carissa ovata R.Br.
  Carissa paucinervia A.DC.
  Carissa pilosa Schinz
  Carissa pubescens A.DC.
  Carissa revoluta Scott-Elliot
  Carissa richardiana Jaub. & Spach
  Carissa scabra R.Br.
  Carissa sechellensis Baker
  Carissa suavissima Bedd. ex Hook.f.
  Carissa tomentosa A.Rich.
  Carissa villosa Roxb.
  Carissa xylopicron Thouars
  Carissa yunnanensis Tsiang & P.T.Li
caption: "Edulis"-type habitus
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