Spekboom!

Commonly used in landscaping in San Diego, comes in a green & white variegate too, which has a more red stem, nice.

And has some pretty tassels of pinkish flowers, eventually.

You can actually eat it too, has a nice zingy bitter lemon flavor

Emily, I didn't know that. Pity someone can't make a dressing with it, or perhaps that too has already happened.

When I looked up Spekboom (I guess that's Dutch), I read some fascinating stuff. Also that it was edible & a fact that just amazed me. It said that in Mozambique, nursing mothers eat this plant to increase their milk production, wonder how they learned this.

Karen, I think it’s Afrikaans (which is of course based on Dutch). That’s interesting about the mothers.

Spekboom translates literally to 'bacon tree' if I'm not mistaken.

It's also very high in vitamin C, and other minerals, probably what gives it its tangy flavor. Could be how it helps nursing mothers. There's a few recipes online too that use it, like a spekboom chickpea tomato salad

Another fun fact, it's one of the best plants at sequestering carbon, comparable to the Amazon rainforest

Spekboom is also called Elephant bush for a reason - elephants love to eat it apparently. In India, it is also sold (sometimes) in the vegetable markets in the greens section.