Indigenous fruit tree species (IFTs) can play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and as a source of food in South Africa. Although these species contain nutrient-rich edible fruits that are also locally processed to food products such as jams and jellies, they are still underutilized and also harvested from the wild. This study aimed to prioritize in northern KwaZulu-Natal, IFTs with domestication and commercialization potential. A literature survey and focus groups were used to list tree species that produce edible fruits with this potential. Plant experts, through focus groups and reference group meetings, further ranked fruit trees using a scorecard method based on various attributes. A total of 29 prioritized IFTs was obtained, of which the Sapotaceae was the most represented family with a maximum of four species. Based on scorecard assessment, the most preferred species in descending order were Strychnos spinosa Lam., Garcinia livingstonei T.Anderson, Englerophytum magalismontanum (Sond.) T.D.Penn, Sclerocarya birrea (A.Rich) Hochst., Dovyalis caffra (Hook.f. & Harv) Hook.f., Vangueria infaustia Burch. and Berchemia zeyheri (Sond.) Grubov. Strychnos spinosa was ranked as the first most important IFTs with a final score of 151, whereas Berchemia zeyheri was ranked the least with the final score of 146.1. However, the final scores of all most preferred species were relatively similar to one another. The top seven species identified in this study should be considered as a baseline for future IFTs development programmes such as domestication, whereby these species are introduced to small-holder farmers and food processing industries.

在南非，土著果树种（IFT）可以在减轻贫困和作为食物来源方面发挥关键作用。尽管这些物种包含营养丰富的可食用水果，这些水果也可以在本地加工为果酱和果冻等食品，但它们仍未得到充分利用，也从野外收获。这项研究旨在优先考虑在夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省北部具有驯化和商业化潜力的IFT。使用文献调查和焦点小组列出了具有这种潜力的可食用水果的树种。植物专家通过焦点小组和参考小组会议，使用基于各种属性的计分卡方法进一步对果树进行排名。总共获得了29个优先的IFT，其中Sapotaceae是最具代表性的科，最多有4种。Strychnos spinosa Lam。，Garcinia livingstonei T.Anderson，Englerophytum magalismontanum（Sond。）TDPenn，Sclerocarya birrea（A.Rich）Hochst。，Dovyalis caffra（Hook.f.＆Harv）Hook.f.，Vangueria infaustia Burch。和Berchemia zeyheri（Sond。）Grubov。马兜铃（Srychnos spinosa）被评为最重要的IFT，最终得分为151，而Ber（Berchemia zeyheri）最终得分最低的是146.1。但是，所有最喜欢的物种的最终得分都相对相似。在本研究中确定的前七个物种应被视为未来IFTs开发计划（例如驯养）的基准，从而将这些物种引入小农户和食品加工业。