Also speck-. [S. African Du., f. spek SPECK sb.4 + boom tree.] The purslane-tree (Portulacaria Afra) of South Africa.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., vi. 209. The spekboom, with its light green leaves and lilac blossoms. Ibid., vii. 248. Browsing on the succulent spekboom, which clothed the skirts of the hills.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 12/1. One vast jungle of dwarfish evergreen shrubs and bushes, amongst which the speckboom was predominant.
1879. Atcherley, Trip Boërland, 186. The spek-boom grows here in great profusion.
