Agathosma gonaquensis, hottentotsboegoe

The leaves of Agathosma gonaquensis are spirally arranged around the stems, densely ascending and spreading. The dark to bright green leaves are small, sometimes narrow to linear, in picture ovate in shape and stalkless.

The leaves shown here belong to a Kirstenbosch plant; they taper to bulbous tips. The leaf tips are also mucronate, i.e. having tiny hair-like protrusions at their tips.The leaves become from 6 mm to 9 mm long.

Oil glands upon both leaves and fruit cause the air around these plants to become suffused with a pleasant aroma, more noticed when the leaves are crushed (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iSpot; www.plantzafrica.com).