Ochna natalitia

Ochna natalitia, commonly known as the Natal plane or the showy redwood, is a rhizomatous shrublet, occasionally a small to medium-sized reaching heights to around 10 m (SA Tree List No. 481). 

The leaves in picture are quite yellow at the end of their season in July, although the plant isn’t normally seen without leaves. The showy ochna grows golden yellow flowers in branched heads in spring to midsummer.

The species distribution is coastal in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, inland in the provinces north of the Vaal River, and in eSwatini, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The habitat is rocky outcrops and bushveld. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; iNaturalist; https://redlist.sanbi.org).