Carob

Carob trees on the green slopes of Jabal al Akhdar give sweet pods that Libyans boil down into a thick syrup.

An evergreen, spreading tree of the legume family, growing to 10–15 m, with a thick trunk and dark, even-pinnate leaves with a few pairs of glossy leaflets. Small, greenish, petal-less flowers grow in autumn straight from the branches and trunk. The fruits are flat, leathery pods 10–25 cm long, which darken to chocolate brown as they ripen and contain sweet, floury pulp and hard seeds. The tree is highly drought-resistant and grows on stony limestone slopes.

Significance in the country

The carob is one of the most important trees of the forests and scrub of Jabal al Akhdar in Cyrenaica, where its pods have been gathered for centuries. The syrup boiled from them is eaten as a sweet accompaniment to bread and flour-based dishes, and the pods once served as fodder and as food for hard times.

Where it grows

Mainly on Jabal al Akhdar in Cyrenaica – on the slopes around Al Bayda, Shahhat and Al Marj – and as scattered trees in Tripolitania too.

According to the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (Kew), the species is native to this country. Source and licence

More: Wikipedia (en) Wikipedia (pl) Plants of the World Online (Kew)