Corchorus kirkii N. E. Br.

kirkii: named after Dr John Kirk, who accompanied David Livingstone on his Zambezi expedition of 1858

Small shrub, up to 2 m tall but usually shorter. Branches densely greyish or yellowish hairy. Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-10 cm long, thick textured, densely grey-green or yellowish hairy on both surfaces; veins impressed above and raised beneath; margins more or less coarsely toothed. Flowers yellow, in 3-8-flowered, leaf-opposed clusters on a short peduncle, up to 1 cm long. Fruit a narrowly ovoid or linear-cylindric capsule, up to 3 cm long, densely covered in soft stellately hairy bristles.

Locally frequent

Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Limpopo, Mpumalanga, South Africa.