Cussonia zuluensis

Cussonia zuluensis, the Zulu cabbage tree, is a small, spindly, multi-stemmed tree reaching 4 m in height (SA Tree List No. 561).

The stems are slender, the biggest up to 5 cm in diameter. The bark is grey-green and smooth to flaking. The yellowish green flowers grow in terminal umbels of up to 26 cylindrical racemes. Blooming occurs from mid-spring through summer. The fruit is a mauve-coloured, goblet-shaped fleshy drupe of 8 mm by 5 mm.

The species distribution is in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, as well as in Swaziland and southern Mozambique. The habitat is bushveld, dry coastal scrub and forest. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

This tree is closely related to C. nicholsonii of southern KwaZulu-Natal (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; www.redlist.sanbi.org).