Agathosma ovata

Agathosma ovata is a shrub reaching heights around 2 m. It rarely resprouts after fire. Although the plant truly belongs in the buchu family, it landed the name of false buchu and in Afrikaans basterboegoe, probably to distinguish it from a more widely used, medicinal buchu plant.

The leaf-shape is variable, from oblong and elliptic to almost round. A. ovata shares the features of oil glands and strong aromatic scent with many of its relatives in the genus. The pink, white or purple flowers have a diameter of 5 mm to 10 mm.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. It is known from Ceres, the Witteberg, the Little Karoo, the coastal region around Knysna and inland to the mountains of southern KwaZulu-Natal.

The plants habitat is stony fynbos slopes and rocky outcrops. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century.

A few buchu plants have become famous medicinally. Some do well in fragrance and flavour markets (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Gledhill, 1981; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).