The peanut butter plant sprout when I first got it.

More than three years ago, I was given a seedling of the peanut butter plant (Bunchosia argentea) by one of my gardening buddies, Skyfiery, who unfortunately doesn’t blog any more. It’s a pity, because the plant has grown and is starting to do interesting things.

The peanut butter plant now, after a bit of a prune that kept only the stems with flower buds on them.

In my usual way of doing things, I’d left the plant in a pot in a corner of the garden where it eventually took root. Fortunately, it wasn’t fast-growing, but it eventually grew more than two metres high and branched out quite a bit. In fact, it was starting to get in the way of hanging the laundry to dry, so I went to give it a bit of a prune. That was when I noticed that it was starting to bud!

The flower buds were already in progress, but I managed to catch a few more bunches of buds developing, and these are the stages I managed to get:

The peanut butter flower buds beginning to form…

Stage two of the peanut butter plant buds – which reminds me of icing-topped cupcakes, with the icing dripping down the sides…

Stage 3 of the peanut butter flower buds – where it reminds me of popcorn…

Stage 4 of the peanut butter flower, where it actually blooms.

So far, no fruits have developed yet. I’m all agog with anticipation, though. This has been a mystery plant to me. I’ve read that the fruits are small and reddish-orange, and have a sticky, dense pulp with a flavour reminiscent of figs or peanut butter. In fact, the fruits are supposed to smell like peanut butter! I have to smell it to believe it. Let’s hope that the fruits do come when the plant is ready.

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