permaculture

["Sharon Gordon" <gordonse@one.net>]

I've come across some info on a multi-use plant that sounds interesting.
It's called Argania Spinosa and looks similar to an olive three, but with
thorns.

It produces a plum-size fruit that livestock like, and goats will climb the
trees to get to the fruit.  The seed produces an oil that is good as an
edible oil which can be used fresh or for cooking. The post oil production
leftovers make good animal food too. Using an oil press, around 40-45% of
the seeds can be converted to oil.  And the oil brings a good price, selling
for example for about 8 to 10 times the price of olive oil in Israel.  It's
similarly healthy to olive oil.  The oil is also good for cosmetic purposes.
The plant also makes good furniture wood inlays and firewood and is useful
for preventing dessertification (unless excessively harvested for
firewood!).

It can be a shrub or grow into a 25-45+ foot tree as here
http://www.arabmab.net/florainfo.cfm?fid=7
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/where/morocco/argan_tree
.cfm

I am interested in anyone's experiences if anyone is growing it.  I am also
interested in what sort of cold tolerance it has and how it fares in less
arid areas.  Also I haven't come across any references to whether the leaves
are used for anything, so if there is info on that, I'd appreciate that too.

Sharon
gordonse@one.net