Grey Leaved Wormbush

termitaria: occurring on termite mounds

Large shrub, sometimes straggling, up to c. 3 m tall. Bark blackish; young branches covered in lenticels and minute grey scales. Leaves spirally arranged or clustered on dwarf spur branchlets elliptic to obovate, up to 20 × 7 mm, grey-green, covered in minute grey scales on both surfaces; apex rounded or notched, often bristle-tipped. Flowers solitary or in clusters on the spurs, green to pinkish; petals absent; stamens and style on a long stalk, called the andogynophore. Fruit narrowly cylindric, worm-like, up to c. 90 × 5 mm, dark green, covered in greyish scales. Seeds embedded in an orange-red powdery pulp.

Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North-West Province, South Africa