MINGORA: Though known for its vast orchards and high-quality fruits, Swat valley is also home to wild edible seasonal fruits and medicinal plants.

Noted among them is Ziziphus nummularia, locally known as Karkanra, a small, round and yellowish berry.

These days, the mountainous regions of the valley have ripe Ziziphus nummularia everywhere.

Fruit used for medicinal purposes, popular due to flavour

Children and grownups from villages and hamlets go in groups to pluck and collect them.

Though the leaves of Ziziphus nummularia are used as livestock fodder, its branches as firewood and its fruit for medicinal purposes, the people, especially children, love it due to sweetness.

“These wild thorny plants produce fruit at the advent of the winter season which we anxiously wait for. They exist in large numbers in our area. The fruit is small but it’s tasty, so we all friends pluck and collect fruit from these plants before taking them home. We eat it after sprinkling salt,” said girl Zohra in Ghwandai area.

The residents of Barikot said they loved the fruit and ate it both fresh and dried, while some people drank its juice.

“Karkanra and its leaves are used as medicine by elderly people as they dry it in the sun and grind it into a powder and use it for skin diseases but I personally like it to make a juice of it and drink it as it juice makes me fresh and active,” said resident Fazal Azim.

He said some people ground Ziziphus nummularia and ate its powder after mixing it with jaggery.

The resident said the Karkanra fruit also gave a beautiful look and produced nice smell attracting people and animals alike.

Suleman of Barikot area said the area had several wild shrubs and plants, which produced edible fruits.

“They all (wild shrubs and plants) appear in different seasons. The people go to the mountains in leisure time, pluck wild fruit, eat it and bring it home,” he said.

The resident said the mountains not only looked nice but they were also a source of fruits and medicinal plants.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2018