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Inspired by that other thread about the guanabana fruit, here are a few plants that are found in our part of the world.

Guess what they're called in Somali, if you know it.


Aloe Perryi - a hint, it has a bitter sap that was sometimes applied to kids thumbs to wean them off of sucking it


Calotropis procera - I had a wart problem as a kid and I remember my mother applying the milky sap on my skin


Ziziphus mauritiana - a very common tree...recognizable by its fruit


Salvadora Persica - another very common plant...also known as dhuljiif...some of us probably still use it today, I know I do


Commiphora myrrha

I'm familiar with the plants/fruits of those pictures. If I'm not mistaken, Ziziphus mauritiana is known as geb in Somali.

Yes Gob

Cuqdad is when 100% of Idoor members one way or another display hate persistently and even the ones who try hard to appear nutural turn the other cheek and giggle, line up behind those that are spewing hatred

Cuqdad is when nearly 100% Idoor members get together in secret to thrash out how they should go about aggravating Darood members and give eachother pointers on how to show aggression and overwhelm the so called enemy and in addition persistently pray for other’s downfall, distraction and wish evil upon them at all times

Cuqdad is also, making up usernames, claiming to be from a tribe that your not so you can bring shame, and embarressment to them (your guilty of this)

And Cuqdad is also denying that you lot do all this

You got the wrong thread brother!

1. Dacar
2. Booc (BOC BOOC) ciyal xamar
3. Gob
4.don't know
5. me thinks its Luubaan

during the school holidays we used to go to a little tuulo between Xamar and Baydhaba called Leego. we had a holiday house there and I remember going through the bushes near the tuulo and eating the wild beries like.

Dhafaruur
mareer
gomosh
Jinaw (salty leaves)

I also learned about the following trees.

Qurac
Qansax
Garas
Yaaq
Dhuyac (ulo fiican oo toosan ayuu leeyahay)
Xagar
Galool
.....can't remember about 20 others

any1 knows more big trees in somalia?

there is a new book that has about 2000 tree names. here is the link
http://horseedmedia.net/2009/08/magacya ... maaliyeed/

Very good saaxib...you're right on the first 3. The 4th one is caday (used as a toothpick) and the last one is the tree that produces the malmal...the sap was used as an unguent on saanfuur...We also used it to thicken the ink for malcaama (quraan school)

Alla maxaan shacabkii Hargeysa waa baryey Dacar iska mariyey lugta when a tree scraches my leg or when I cut my finger etc etc..

But does anyone know the uses of Booc Booc? I only used to hear the proverb which was "Ula booc booc ah aa loguu tukubaa qofkaas" Somehow Booc booc grows more in Mogadisho..

Why is the gob look like bigger fruits? Do you folks know that the leaves of the Gob three when ground is called "Qasil" and it is used to wash and clean bodies? :up

Wasn't it Xodey not malmal that was used for the ink of malcaama quraan?

In what regions does the Dacar cactus grow, just the Northwest or everywhere in Somalia in different amounts?


Skippa, good thread brother.

Yeah good thread Skippa...I haven't seen malmal b4, and looking at the pic i thought that was Xabag. But I think xabag grows on branches instead of the trunk of the tree.

OK, number 4:
Isn't caday another name for rumii? But that isn't the af Somali name of the tree is it?

Is the dacar cactus a kind of prickly pear? If so, there were some growing near the Government School in Jilib.

Kambuli,
That's a close-up of the plant...that's why the fruit looks so big in the picture. I had no idea the Qasil was from the Gob leaves...Maasha'Allah!!! Markuu gobku aad u bislaado, people used to boil it in water until it reduces to almost pulp and the juice thickens. They would then cool it down and eat/drink it or pop it in it the freezer to make it a refreshing treat called maraabadoon. As for the Booc, I am not sure of its other uses but my mother would apply it on burooyin aan lahaa markaan yaraa.

Cinque, the dacar grows in the wild everywhere, even in the dry and barren jabuuti...I think it's related to the Aloe Vera which can be found as an ingredient in everything, from hand lotions and facial creams to shampoos and even bottled drinks



Gats, xabagta I think waxa lagu tilmaama different types of resin...fooxa iyo malmashu waa iska noc min xabag laakin taad u jeeda waa ti cadayd malaha, malmashu it's a little darker and I distinctly remember using it for making ink (I was the head inkmaker in my malcaamad class, I mastered the art of using a piece of charcoal, a little bit of water, a block of concrete to use as a grater and just the right amount of malmal)...Now that I think of it, malmal was also used on a skin condition called "is nidaamis" that I contracted once where the skin fell off the palm of my hands...It did help quite a bit.

Grant, The prickly pear was some type of cactus and it was called Tiin in somali, probably borrowed from the arabic name of the fig tree...incidently, there's another cactus called indian fig tree that resembles the prickly pear so there's the confusion perhaps, or the fact that its fruit resembles the figs

So dacar is aloe, not cactus. That picture looks like one we call dwarf blue aloe in this country. There was a different one planted around the soccer field in Jilib that was silmilar to agave in having stringy fibers like sisal. (?) Only about eight or ten inches high.

^ wow you remeber what plants looked like 40 years ago

whats your secret anti-damentia/Alzeimers formula?

JaMaaL-23 wrote:^ wow you remeber what plants looked like 40 years ago

whats your secret anti-damentia/Alzeimers formula?

Don't write me off yet! Alzheimer's patients have trouble with short-term memory. At 88 my mother has trouble recognizing her current husband, but still remembers details of her childhood and early married life. The deep memories remain intact.

I still work a full -time job and should be able to a good many years yet. My father's family were all fully functional into their early nineties.